comb

Etymology 1

From Middle English comb, from Old English camb (“comb”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamb, from Proto-Germanic *kambaz (“comb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”). The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb. Cognates Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Norwegian kam, German Kamm); also Tocharian B keme, Lithuanian žam̃bas (“sharp edge”), Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ), Albanian dhëmb, Ancient Greek γομφίος (gomphíos, “backtooth, molar”), Sanskrit जम्भ (jambha)).

noun

1. A toothed implement:
   1. A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.
   2. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
   3. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
   4. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
   5. The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
   6. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
   7. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
   8. (weaving) A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
   9. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate.
2. A crest:
   1. A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
   2. (by extension) A crest (of metal, leather, etc) on a piece of armor, especially on a helmet.
      The head-dress of the Horse Grenadiers consists of a peculiar leather helmet with a comb of bear's skin passing over it from ear to ear and a long scarlet […] 1888, “Journal of the United Service Institution of India”, in United Service Institution of India, page 197
      The armet has usually a low central cabled comb with parallel flutes on either side, occasionally there are three or five combs. 1898, John Starkie Gardner, Armour in England from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century, page 44
      The combs or elbow pieces are beautifully made, and over the right armpit is […] 1909, Albert Frederick Calvert, Madrid: An Historical Description and Handbook of the Spanish Capital, page 82
      Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle) The Pikeman of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, […] 2021, Charles Henry Ashdown, British and Foreign Arms & Armour, Good Press
   3. The top part of a gun’s stock.
3. A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
   The combs of the wild bees are found on overhanging precipices, and the only means by which they can be reached is to descend from above on narrow cane ladders just wide enough for a man’s foot, and often 300 feet to 400 feet long. 1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, page 9
4. (music) The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
5. A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
6. An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
   But the comb or half quarter is very general in the Eastern counties, particularly in Norfolk. 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207
7. The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
8. (algebraic geometry) A connected and reduced curve with irreducible components consisting of a smooth subcurve (called the handle) and one or more additional irreducible components (called teeth) that each intersect the handle in a single point that is unequal to the unique point of intersection for any of the other teeth.
9. (Cornwall, mining, obsolete) A kind of vertical plate in a lode.

verb

1. (transitive, especially of hair or fur) To groom with a toothed implement, especially a comb.
   I need to comb my hair before we leave the house.
2. (transitive) To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
3. (transitive) To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.
   Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.
4. (nautical, intransitive) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
5. (naval, transitive) To turn a vessel parallel to (the track of) (a torpedo) so as to reduce one's size as a target.
   The aircraft split up so as to attack from different, preselected bearings, thus confusing the gunners and making it difficult for the ship to comb torpedo tracks. 2010, Jim Crossley, Bismarck: The Epic Chase
   Sixteen torpedo bombers divided their attention between the two ships. Repulse combed the torpedo wakes and knocked down two of the attackers. 2013, Steve Backer, British Battlecruisers of the Second World War, page 10

Etymology 2

From combination.

noun

1. (rare) Abbreviation of combination.

Etymology 3

noun

1. Alternative form of combe

Etymology 4

noun

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of coomb
   [Regarding a period of agricultural depression] Even on the good land where the farmer hadn't enough capital to look after it and have it properly drained he couldn't hold on. He'd be getting a yield of eight combs of wheat and ten combs of barley per acre. But that wasn't good enough: it gave him no leeway. This is understandable when you recollect the price of wheat at that time. 1971, George Ewart Evans, quoting auctioneer Aston Gaze, Tools of Their Trades: An Oral History of Men at Work c. 1900, Taplinger Publishing Company, page 109