different between camber vs comber

English

Alternative forms

• cambre (chiefly obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French cambre (“bent”), from Latin camurum, from camur (“arched”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kæm.b?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kæm.b?/

Noun

camber (uncountable)

1. A slight convexity, arching or curvature of a surface of a road, beam, roof, ship's deck etc., so that liquids will flow off the sides.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 1

     From end to end, just behind the houses, ran the broad gravel walk, with its emphatic camber and its metal-edged gutters where a child's ball would come to rest and the first few plane leaves, dusty but still green, were already falling, since the summer had been so hot and rainless all through.

2. The slope of a curved road created to minimize the effect of centrifugal force.
3. (architecture) An upward concavity in the underside of a beam, girder, or lintel; also, a slight upward concavity in a straight arch.
4. (automotive) The alignment on the roll axis of the wheels of a road vehicle, where positive camber signifies that the wheels are closer together at the bottom than the top.
5. (aviation) The curvature of an airfoil.
6. (nautical) A small enclosed dock in which timber for masts (etc.) is kept to weather.

Translations

Verb

camber (third-person singular simple present cambers, present participle cambering, simple past and past participle cambered)

1. To curve upwards in the middle.
2. To adjust the camber of the wheels of a vehicle.

   Because he cambered the tires too much, he had less control on the turns.

Translations

Anagrams

• Cambre, cambre, cambré, cembra

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English comber, camber, equivalent to comb +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??m?/
• (US) enPR: k??m?r, IPA^(key): /?ko?m?/
• Homophone: coma (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

comber (plural combers)

1. A person who combs wool, etc.
2. A machine that combs wool, etc.
3. A long, curving wave breaking on the shore.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka (republished by Eland, 2019; p. 118):

     The mighty combers crashed down with long echoing reverberations like the roar of great cannons, followed by the ominous swish of broken water rushing across the reef in mad clouds of foam and spray.

Synonyms

• (long curving wave): breaker

Derived terms

• beachcomber

Translations

Etymology 2

Wikispecies This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?mb?/
• (US) enPR: käm?b?r, IPA^(key): /?k?mb?/

Noun

comber (plural combers)

1. Serranus cabrilla, the gaper, a fish found in European waters.

Derived terms

• brown comber (Serranus hepatus)
• painted comber (Serranus picta)
• comber wrasse (comb wrasse, Labrus bergylta, syn. Labrus comber)

Translations

Anagrams

• recomb