comb

CEFRA2

/kəʊm/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A tool with narrow teeth used to arrange hair.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move through hair with a comb.

Examples

  • Comb your hair before you go out.

  • She bent to retrieve her comb from the floor.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • /kɒmb/
  • /koʊm/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A toothed implement:

  2. A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.

  3. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.

More examples

In context

  • This is a wooden comb.

  • Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.

  • Ctenophores are mostly planktonic creatures about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit or grape, bearing rows of beating "combs."

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She gently used a fine-toothed blank to untangle her long curly hair.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb. Cognates Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Danish 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)).