Comb Meaning
/kəʊm/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA toothed implement:
nounA toothed implement:, A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.
Sentence Examples
Comb your hair before you go out.
This is a wooden comb.
She bent to retrieve her comb from the floor.
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She gently used a fine-toothed ____ to untangle her long curly hair.
Word Origin & History
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)).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…]."
— 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
"Ctenophores are mostly planktonic creatures about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit or grape, bearing rows of beating "combs.""
— 2001, Julian Sprung, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, page 35:
"I also obtained here a specimen of the rare green jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus), whose back and neck are beautifully scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth-edged oval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to green at the base."
— 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 170:
"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:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She gently used a fine-toothed ____ to untangle her long curly hair.