different between comb vs combings

English

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 *?ómb?os (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *?ómb?- (“to pierce, gnaw through”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: k?m, IPA^(key): /k??m/
• (US) enPR: k?m, IPA^(key): /ko?m/
• Rhymes: -??m

Noun

comb (plural combs)

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

   • 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; […].

2. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
3. A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
4. A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
5. An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
6. The top part of a gun’s stock.
7. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
8. (music) The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
9. A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
10. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
11. The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
12. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
13. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions.
14. The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
15. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
16. (weaving) A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
17. (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.

Synonyms

• (skin on head of birds): cockscomb, crest

Related terms

• kemb
• kempt
• unkempt

Coordinate terms

• (skin on head of birds): caruncle, snood, wattle

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

• orling

Translations

Verb

comb (third-person singular simple present combs, present participle combing, simple past and past participle combed)

1. (transitive, especially of hair or fur) To groom with a toothed implement; chiefly with a comb.

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.

4. (nautical, intransitive) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.

Translations

Etymology 2

From combination.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?mb/

Noun

comb (plural combs)

1. (abbreviation) Combination. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku?m/

Noun

comb (plural combs)

1. Alternative form of combe

Anagrams

• BMOC

Hungarian

Etymology

Of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?t?somb]
• Hyphenation: comb
• Rhymes: -omb

Noun

comb (plural combok)

1. (anatomy) thigh

Declension

Derived terms

• combocska
• combos
• combú

References

Further reading

• comb in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN
• comb in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (’A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2021)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• combe, kombe, camb, kambe, cambe

Etymology

From Old English camb, comb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k??mb/, /?k?mb/
• (mainly Northern ME) IPA^(key): /?kamb/, /?ka?mb/

Noun

comb (plural combes)

1. A comb (toothed tool for holding or grooming hair)
2. An instrument similar to a comb used for differing things.
3. A comb or wattle (usually of a rooster)
4. A honeycomb (hexagonal structure of bees)
5. (rare) The top of a mount or rise.
6. (rare) The palm or the analogous part of the foot.

Related terms

• hony combe
• horscomb
• kemben

Descendants

• English: comb
• Scots: camb, came, kame, kaim, kem
• Yola: cowm, khime

References

• “c?mb, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-31.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komb/

Noun

comb m

1. Alternative form of camb

English

Noun

combings pl (plural only)

1. Fragments of hair etc. removed with a comb.