comb – English noun declension

English noun forms of comb

Noun: comb
Singularcomb
Pluralcombs

Sample Sentences

  • 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:]
  • The combs or elbow pieces are beautifully made, and over the right armpit is […] [1909, Albert Frederick Calvert, Madrid: An Historical Description and Handbook of the Spanish Capital, page 82:]
  • Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle) The Pikeman of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, […] [2021, Charles Henry Ashdown, British and Foreign Arms & Armour, Good Press:]
  • The combs of the wild bees are found on overhanging precipices, and the only means by which they can be reached is to descend from above on narrow cane ladders just wide enough for a man’s foot, and often 300 feet to 400 feet long. [1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, page 9:]
  • But the comb or half quarter is very general in the Eastern counties, particularly in Norfolk. [1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207:]

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 *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb.
2. Cognates
3. 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)). See: Middle English Nouns 'comb', Old English Nouns 'camb', Danish Nouns 'kam', German Nouns 'Kamm', Ancient Greek Nouns 'γομφίος'.

Verbs referencing "comb"

Danish Nouns kam, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns kam, Swedish Nouns kam, English Nouns cam, Latvian Nouns zobs, Ancient Greek Nouns γόμφος, Old Norse Nouns kambr.