What does "comb" mean?
Comb: An instrument for currying hairy animals, or cleansing and smoothing their coats; a currycomb.
Additional senses
- 2.(Manuf. & Mech.) (a) A toothed instrument used for separating and cleansing wool, flax, hair, etc. (b) The serrated vibratory doffing knife of a carding machine. (c) A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening the soft fiber into a bat. (d) A tool with teeth, used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser. (e) The notched scale of a wire micrometer. (f) The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
- 3.(Zoöl.) (a) The naked fleshy crest or caruncle on the upper part of the bill or hood of a cock or other bird. It is usually red. (b) One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen of scorpions.
- 4.The curling crest of a wave.
- 5.The waxen framework forming the walls of the cells in which bees store their honey, eggs, etc.; honeycomb. "A comb of honey." Wyclif. When the bee doth leave her comb. Shak.
- 6.The thumbpiece of the hammer of a gunlock, by which it may be cocked.
- 7.To disentangle, cleanse, or adjust, with a comb; to lay smooth and straight with, or as with, a comb; as, to comb hair or wool. See under Combing. Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright. Shak.
- 8.To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
- 9.That unwatered portion of a valley which forms its continuation beyond and above the most elevated spring that issues into it. [Written also coombe.] Buckland. A gradual rise the shelving combe Displayed. Southey.
- 10.A dry measure. See Coomb.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00