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Comb   /koʊm/   Listen
Comb

verb
(past & past part. combed; pres. part. combing)
1.
Straighten with a comb.
2.
Search thoroughly.  Synonym: ransack.
3.
Smoothen and neaten with or as with a comb.  Synonyms: comb out, disentangle.  "Comb the wool"



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"Comb" Quotes from Famous Books



... waste much time over his soap and water; but he was aware that first impressions are everything, and that one young man should appear smart and clever before another if he wished to carry any effect with him; so he took his brush and comb in his pocket, and a pot of grease with which he was wont to polish his long side-locks, and he hurriedly grasped up his pins, and his rings, and the satin stock which Fanny in her kinder mood had folded for him; and then, during his long journey to Hap House, he did perform a toilet which may, ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... the river till the curving shores hid it. These, springing abruptly prom the water's brink, and shagged with pine and cedar, displayed the tender verdure of grass and bushes intermingled with the dark evergreens that comb from ledge to ledge, till they point their speary tops above the crest of bluffs. In front, where tumbled rocks and expanses of caked clay varied the gloomier and gayer green, sprung those spectral mists; and through them loomed ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... a wig, but it was one of the fussy kind, and made my head look as though guiltless of a comb or brush for many months. To beautify my complexion I smeared it over with soot, and when I regaled myself with a glance at our six by nine glass, I was satisfied that no living man could tell whether I was a dirty white man or ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins; surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle; blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe (2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush; comb; small whetstone—(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon—(weight, 4 lbs. ...
— The Forest • Stewart Edward White

... Miss Ophelia loved him. When a boy, it had been hers to teach him his catechism, mend his clothes, comb his hair, and bring him up generally in the way he should go; and her heart having a warm side to it, Augustine had, as he usually did with most people, monopolized a large share of it for himself, and therefore it was that he succeeded very easily in persuading her that the "path ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... it down the road. Once, looking at the girl, she thought with a half smile how oddly clean she was. The flannel skirt she arranged so complacently had been washed until the colours had run madly into each other in sheer desperation; her hair was knotted with relentless tightness into a comb such as old women wear. The very cart, patched as it was, had a snug, cosy look; the masses of vegetables, green and crimson and scarlet, were heaped with a certain reference to the glow of colour, Margret noticed, wondering if it were accidental. Looking up, she saw the girl's brown eyes ...
— Margret Howth, A Story of To-day • Rebecca Harding Davis

... among some castes in Chhattisgarh, when the twins are of different sex, they are considered to be pap (sinful) and are called Papi and Papin, an allusion to the horror of a brother and sister sharing the same bed (the mother's womb)." Hindus think that if two people comb their hair with the same comb they will lose their affection for each other. Hence the hair of twins is combed with the same comb to weaken the tie which exists between them, and may cause the illness or death of either to follow ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell

... prosperous farms, that spread o'er hill and dale The many-coloured mantle of their crops; I see the terraced vineyard on the slope Where now the fox-grape loops its tangled vine; And cattle feeding where the red deer roam; And wild-bees gathered into busy hives, To store the silver comb with golden sweet; And all the promised land begins to flow With milk and honey. Stately manors rise Along the banks, and castles top the hills, And little villages grow populous with trade, Until the river ...
— The White Bees • Henry Van Dyke

... coins which hang from the neck, sometimes below the stomach, tinkling at every step; this is her dowry, and sometimes worth as much as L50. When she is married she puts off the gendar and sparkling kapa. The men used to have a pigtail, of which they were very proud. The wife used to comb it twice a month, anoint it with butter, and tie up the end with ribbons and amulets. It was the only time when a Morlacco addressed his wife affectionately. In barracks and in prison the hair is cut, ...
— The Shores of the Adriatic - The Austrian Side, The Kuestenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia • F. Hamilton Jackson

... extraordinary amount of humility and contrition. Linen was never a burning question in Holloway Hotel, and cuffs and collars were unknown, except when a short guest wore a long shirt. My toilet was therefore easily completed; and with a good wash, and the energetic use of a three-inch comb, I was soon ready for the ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (First Series) • George W. Foote

... never was a family without its homely man, With legs a little longer than the ordinary plan, An' a shock of hair that brush an' comb can't ever straighten out, An' hands that somehow never seem to know what they're about; The one with freckled features and a nose that looks as though It was fashioned by the youngsters from a chunk of mother's dough. You know the man I'm thinking of, the homely one ...
— Just Folks • Edgar A. Guest

... before him; and he, with the maid's white apron girt tight about him just beneath his armpits, had on his soldierly face an expression of desperate resolve that suggested the leading of a forlorn hope. A row of hair-pins protruded sharply from between his tightly closed lips; a tortoise-shell back-comb, dangling from one side of his full beard where he placed it for safety, made this amateur hairdresser a disturbing sight both for gods ...
— Stage Confidences • Clara Morris

... accurate elevation of that place was, according to the observations taken with the hypsometrical apparatus, 967 feet, water boiling at that spot at 210 deg. 33/4, and the temperature of the atmosphere being 721/2 deg. F. The indented beach, not unlike a giant double-comb, was at the beginning of a great island which I named James Dewar Island, in honour of the great discoverer of liquid air. The minimum temperature during the night of July 29th was 55 ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... invented, the filling threads were drawn evenly into place by means of a rude comb and driven home by sword-shaped piece of wood or "batten." The reed accomplished all ...
— Textiles and Clothing • Kate Heintz Watson

... girlhood. There were a set of garnets, some badly cut diamonds in ear-rings and rings, some seed-pearl ornaments, and a really beautiful set of amethysts. There were a necklace, two brooches—a bar and a circle—earrings, a ring, and a comb. Each piece was charming, set in filigree gold with seed-pearls, but perhaps of them all the comb was the best. It was a very large comb. There was one great amethyst in the center of the top; on either side was an intricate pattern of plums in small amethysts, ...
— The Copy-Cat and Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... they began; they smote off the head of the first, and presently there was a lily in the glass of distilled water, where Faustus perceived this lily as it was springing, and the chief juggler named it the tree of life. Thus dealt he with the first, making the barber wash and comb his head, and then he set it on again. Presently the lily vanished away out of the water; hereat the man had his head whole and sound again. The like did he with the other two; and as the turn and lot came to the chief juggler, that he also should be beheaded, and that this lily was most ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various

... him, washed his hands, face and feet twice a day, and brushed and combed his hair,—which he would try to do himself whenever he got hold of the brush or comb. He soon got ...
— The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals • William T. Hornaday

... eyes filled with tears. She took the bread and milk without resistance, though she looked at the black bread as if it were repugnant to her. Then she let herself be undressed by Elsie, directing her to open the bag, and taking from it a nightdress of fine calico, a brush and comb, also a large sponge, a couple of fine towels, a change of underclothing, two pairs of stockings, and one black dress, finer than ...
— Little Frida - A Tale of the Black Forest • Anonymous

... Abdullah and a detachment of troops to represent the government during my absence. He was to supply them with corn, and to yield the same obedience to Major Abdullah as he would to me. I gave him nine yards of red cotton cloth, six pounds of beads, two razors, one comb, two horn snakes in boxes, one knife, one burning glass, one zinc mirror, two nickel spoons, three rods of thick brass wire, two finger rings, two pair of ear-rings, two red and ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker

... of cross blue stripes. Around the bosom of the periot was a frill of white vandyked gauze of the same form covered with black gauze which hangs in streamers down her back. Her hair behind is a large braid with a monstrous crooked comb." ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... her connection with Aldith, devoted herself to her sister, and waited on her hand and foot; she made her all kinds of little presents—a boot-bag, with compartments; a brush-and-comb bag, with the monogram "J.W.," worked in pink silk; a little work-basket, with needle-book, pin-cushion, and all complete. Judy feared she should be compelled to betake herself to tidy habits ...
— Seven Little Australians • Ethel Sybil Turner

... sacred to the girls. Then he put on a clean collar (which was a daring and outrageous defiance of authority, which allowed but two a week), and prepared to face consequences. The family brush and comb were kept in a small bag which hung on a nail beside the scratched and defaced old family looking-glass, and Paul was artistically at work upon his hair when his mother entered the kitchen. The excellent woman sat down to laugh, and Armstrong came ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray

... terrible, fears nothing more than the noise of empty carts, and likewise the crowing of cocks. And it is much terrified at the sight of one, and looks at its comb with a frightened aspect, and is strangely alarmed when ...
— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... feeding arrangement. Here the wool is delivered by the feed rollers, A A, in the usual manner. The longer fibers are then taken off by a comb, B, and brought forward to the stripper, E, which transfers them to the roller, H, and thence to the cylinder. The shorter fibers which are not seized by the comb fall down, but as they drop they meet a blast of air created by a fan, which throws ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882 • Various

... the bee's fiction would be rich and broad; full of the complex tasks of comb-building and filling; the care and feeding of the young, the guardian-service of the queen; and far beyond that it would spread to the blue glory of the summer sky, the fresh winds, the endless beauty and sweetness of a thousand thousand flowers. It would treat of the vast fecundity ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... says: "Do pray see me home—I am quite nervous;" and to prove it she laughs as loud as any of them. The joke is now being carried too far, and the young sword-knots pick up, amid roars of laughter, his handkerchief, the papers, the horn-comb, the fig of tobacco, the fractured pipe, the jack-knife, and the clean shirt-collar, that was only worn once, and toss them into his hat, which is carefully secured on his head, so low as to cover his eyes, and so tight as nearly ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... confidently and sat down. She wore one of the thin white linens, which, like the other women of the Islands, she put aside for heavier stuffs on state occasions only, and her hair had tumbled from its high comb and fallen upon her shoulders. Mary Fawcett sighed as she looked at her. She was too young to marry, and had it not been for the haunting terror of leaving her alone in the world, the Dane, well circumstanced as he was, would have been ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... never safe! I remember vividly going into a chemist's shop and being stood upon a stool to say my part to the chemist! Such leisure as I had from my profession was spent in "minding" the younger children—an occupation in which I delighted. They all had very pretty hair, and I used to wash it and comb it out until it looked as fine ...
— The Story of My Life - Recollections and Reflections • Ellen Terry

... on my things over my wet chilled body. It had been a hard task too, especially with my socks, but I hardly spoke till we were walking home, and when I did it was during the time I was smoothing my wet hair with a pocket comb lent me ...
— Brownsmith's Boy - A Romance in a Garden • George Manville Fenn

... ordered some provisions to be given to their chief, with which he was greatly pleased, and came several times to the side of our boat to see us. These savages shave off the hair far up on the head, and wear what remains very long, which they comb and twist behind in various ways very neatly, intertwined with feathers which they attach to the head. They paint their faces black and red, like the other savages which we have seen. They are an agile people, with well-formed bodies. ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 2 • Samuel de Champlain

... broad-brimmed hat covering his woolly pate completes his costume. Still barbarous and awkward as the affair appears, it looks perfectly suitable to surrounding objects; the fair occupants seem also in their proper places, with their gaily-coloured costumes, and their dark hair fastened by a high comb, and ornamented generally with natural flowers. Jack did not consider their beauty so surpassing as he had been led to expect, while he thought the older dames perfectly hideous; but then the recollection of the lily and rose in the cheeks of his fair countrywomen ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston

... reaching the steepest pitch of the ridge, where it sweeps up in a cock's comb,[3] we came upon the vestiges of a camp made by our predecessors of a year before, in a hollow dug in the snow—an empty biscuit carton and a raisin package, some trash and brown paper and discolored snow—as fresh ...
— The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) - A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest - Peak in North America • Hudson Stuck

... Chippeway; of the same at Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie; that of Brown over Drummond at the same place; the capture of another fleet on Lake Champlain by M'Donough; the entire defeat of their army under Prevost, on the same day, by M'Comb, and recently their defeats at New Orleans by Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four thousand men out of nine thousand and six hundred, with their two Generals, Packingham and Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded, mortally, ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... Mother died, and we were sort of scattered about till we came here. Cousin Chilian was very good to us. So you see we haven't much to leave, but then we haven't any descendant;" and she gave a soft little laugh. "Elizabeth has mother's gold comb, set with amethysts, and a brooch, and I have the string of gold beads and some rings. A cousin in London ...
— A Little Girl in Old Salem • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... that she's a lady in need, who lives in the pocket of her father's white serge coat that hangs behind his stateroom door; and she's in a helluva lot of trouble, but Jack doesn't know where else she is, so we're going to comb out the universe and find her! ...
— Wings of the Wind • Credo Harris

... of natation. My use of soap, too, and the facility with which by its aid I was enabled to remove the dust and grime accumulated during the day's travel, was another revelation to him; as was also the comb wherewith I arranged my now much too luxuriant locks. My bath towels likewise came in for a share of his admiration; but the thing which, next to my stature, most excited the fellow's astonishment was the ...
— Through Veld and Forest - An African Story • Harry Collingwood

... her! how the sprays shivered as T spoke the name she owned! how the nightingales ceased for a breath their warbling as she rustled down a fragrant path and met me! All her hair was swept back in one great mass and held by an ivory comb; a white cloak wrapped her white array; she was jewel-less and stripped of lustre; she was like pearl, milky as a shell, white as the moonlight ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various

... cluttered bench holding a number of retorts, beside which flamed an oxyacetylene blowpipe. He was a wizened little chap, with scrawny neck and protruding Adam's apple. His long hair gave no evidence of the use of the comb, and his hands were the hands of Esau. He had an alertness that suggested a robin, but at the same time gave the impression that he looked through things rather than at them. On the mantel was a saucer containing the fast oxidizing ...
— The Man Who Rocked the Earth • Arthur Train

... rubs himself upon a large jack-towel, blowing like a military sort of diver just come up, his hair curling tighter and tighter on his sunburnt temples the more he rubs it so that it looks as if it never could be loosened by any less coercive instrument than an iron rake or a curry-comb—as he rubs, and puffs, and polishes, and blows, turning his head from side to side the more conveniently to excoriate his throat, and standing with his body well bent forward to keep the wet from his martial legs, Phil, ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... the price! It was the tool—a weird hybrid tool, part gun, part rake, part catapult, part curry-comb, fit apparently for almost any purpose, from the business of blunderbuss to the office of an apple-picker. Its handle, which any child could hold, was somewhat shorter and thicker than a hoe-handle, and had a slotted tin barrel, ...
— The Hills of Hingham • Dallas Lore Sharp

... thought Gyda's words too bold, but when King Harald heard them, he said, "It is wonderful that I did not think of this before. And now I make a solemn vow and take God to witness, who made me and rules over all things, that never shall I clip or comb my hair until I have subdued the whole of Norway with scat [land taxes], and duties, ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... which various commodities are sold, and although the assortment consists of a hundred different descriptions of articles, yet all are at one price, consisting of everything that can well be imagined, from a comb to a pair of bellows, the vender singing out the price with stentorian lungs, perhaps twenty-five sous, more or less, and as there is a great deal of opposition with these itinerant merchants, they often try who ...
— How to Enjoy Paris in 1842 • F. Herve

... the book-shop, but Rose the grocer's, and Coulter's the confectioner's were very good. Mr. Manning was an artist. He did not simply put a simpering bust with an elaborate head of hair in his window and leave it at that—he did, indeed, place there a smiling lady with a wonderful jewelled comb and a radiant row of teeth, but around this he built up a magnificent world of silver brushes, tortoise-shell combs, essences and perfumes and powders, jars and bottles and boxes. Manning was the finest artist in the town. Ponting, at the top of the street just at the corner ...
— Jeremy • Hugh Walpole

... for you," he countered. Surprised at finding her passive when he had expected resistance, he began to comb out the tangled tresses. In his earnestness he did not perceive how singular his action might seem to an onlooker. She had a mass of hair that quickly began to smooth out and brighten under his hand. He became absorbed in his task and failed to see ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey

... her, examined the premises carefully and nailed a board over a crevice in the wall where he suspected a draught. He instructed Anders, the groom, with emphatic and anxious repetitions regarding her care, showed him how to make Lady Clare's bed, how to comb her mane, how to brush her (for she refused to endure currying), how to blanket her, and how to read the thermometer which he nailed to one of the posts of the stall. The latter proved to be a more difficult task than he ...
— Boyhood in Norway • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... frosted and the world seemed shut out. He looked round slowly, keenly interested. There was a dressing-table made of an old box; it was covered with pink calico, with muslin over this. A cheap looking-glass on it was draped with muslin and tied at the top with a bit of pink ribbon. A common bone comb lay near the glass, and beside it a beautiful brush with an ivory back and handle. This was the only expensive thing in the room. He wondered, but did not go near it yet. There was a little eight-day clock on a bracket which had been made by hand—pasteboard ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... she plunged and found the shoes. Seeing the house still standing, she thought of other things she might need, grasped her tooth brushes and thrust them in her corset. She would certainly need a comb. She added that—a powder bag and lace collar lying on the bureau were also saved. Her hair was tumbling down. She thought of hairpins and tucking comb and ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... take me and Peter Carr, us two and ah horse, take that shore (follow the ocean shore line) to Little River. Search for all them what been drowned. Find a trunk to Myrtle Beach. Have all kinder thing in 'em; comb for you hair, thing you put on you wrist. Find dead horse, cow, ox, turkey, fowl—everything. Gracious God! Don't want to see no more thing like that! But no dead body find on beach outside Flagg family. Find two of them chillun way down to Dick Pond what ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... dinner is so nearly ready" said untidy Mr. Earlsdown straightening his tie and running a comb through his hair "I'll go and have a quiet glass of claret while I am waiting—perhaps Sylvia will appear ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford

... however, he never fasted, and if wine were offered him, he drank of it sparingly. In former days he had been very careful of his hair, which he had worn, and, indeed, not unbecomingly, in the fashionable manner of the young men of his age; but now he determined to cease to care for it, neither to comb it nor to cut it, and to dispense with all covering for his head both day and night. To punish himself for the too great nicety which he had formerly had in the care of his hands and feet, he now resolved to ...
— The Autobiography of St. Ignatius • Saint Ignatius Loyola

... bath-tub as soon as possible, using sponge with palm-soap and cold water. Top-dress with comb and brush. Trim limbs according to age. Train with rods. Much depends on starting right, so start to school ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 8, May 21, 1870 • Various

... piece of comb, and he smoothed his hair by guess, a desperate character, such as he was accounted by the officer, not being allowed the luxury of a mirror. One might lick the quicksilver from the back of a mirror, or open an artery with a fragment of it, or even pound the glass and swallow it. Almost ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden

... near a duck-pond and a clump of small trees, from which smoke was arising. My curiosity being aroused, I approached, and found that some Australians and Cape Boys were smoking out some bees. I arrived in the nick of time, and got a helmet-full of the most delicious honey in the comb I have tasted for many a day. On Monday, June 4th, we started for what we understood was to be our last march to Pretoria. We had the good fortune to be in the advance party. Soon after starting the Duke of Norfolk's horse fell in a hole and put his thigh out, so he lost the fun, for it ...
— A Yeoman's Letters - Third Edition • P. T. Ross

... there as an excuse for seeking amusement for themselves. She played in the kennels and among the horses' heels, and learned to use oaths as roundly as any Giles or Tom whose work was to wield the curry comb. It was indeed a curious thing to hear her red baby mouth pour forth curses and unseemly words as she would at any one who crossed her. Her temper and hot-headedness carried all before them, and the grooms and stable- boys found great sport ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... provided against the day when he would weigh two hundred pounds, and consequently his garments hung all around him, giving him an exceedingly dispirited look. His hair relieved this somewhat, for it was white and always stood gaily on end, defying brush and comb. Daniel Arker, a sturdy black-haired lad, would have done fuller justice to the passage that fell to Abraham, for the Spiker boy with his gentle lisp never shone in elocution; but our reading class is ...
— The Soldier of the Valley • Nelson Lloyd

... mother-fuss she had picked up from the tending of her tiny stepsister. The present Trotty was a demure little maid of some seven summers, who gave the impression of having been rather rudely elongated. Her flaxen hair was stiffly imprisoned behind a round black comb; and her big blue eyes alone remained to her from a lovely infancy. ("Poor Emma's eyes," ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... the pretty round comb that held back her hair, and he promptly straightened it and broke it; and when she reluctantly brought him back to dinner—how she had succeeded in getting him down from the loft would make a chapter of diplomacy—her mother reproved her for allowing him to take it, and lapped ...
— The Eye of Dread • Payne Erskine

... uncharged pistols; the last was the doctor's man, whose uncombed hair so resembled the mane of the horse he rode, one could not help imagining they were of kin, and wishing, for the honor of the family, that they had had one comb betwixt them. On his head was a velvet cap, much resembling a black saucepan, and on his side hung a little basket. At last we arrived at the King's Head, where the loyalty of the doctor induced him to alight; and then, knight-errant-like, he took his damsels from off their palfreys, ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... pay ye over-time out av his own wages, the wurthless vagabone!" Mr. Reardon had urged. "May he walk wit' a limp for the rest av his days—bad cess to him! I've a notion, Misther Schultz, that lad'll never comb ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne

... construct the nest in the same way and as perfectly as their parents did, instinct would be proved in their case; now it is only assumed, and assumed, as I shall show further on, without any sufficient reason. So, no one has ever carefully taken the pupae of a hive of bees out of the comb, removed them from the presence of other bees, and loosed them in a large conservatory with plenty of flowers and food, and observed what kind of cells they would construct. But till this is done, ...
— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace

... that manner, jumping from one subject to another and always very nervously, she arranged the table more or less decently, and even put the salt in the lid of a little powder box. "Now," she said, "I want you to wash your hands, and comb your hair, and brush your khaki, and ..." until ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe

... "Ah jes' 'bleeged tun say sumpin', an Ah tells 'em de dinin' kyar'll sho'ly obertake us fo' six-thirty. Ya'as, indeedy. An' den, dar's dat lady up dar wid de sour-vinegary sort o' face. Ah jes' heard her say she'd be fo'ced tuh eat her back-comb if she didn't have her lunch pu'ty soon. A' yo' knows, Mistah Ca'tah, no lady's indigestion is a-gwine tuh stan' up under no ...
— Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays • Annie Roe Carr

... gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old Diamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far ...
— At the Back of the North Wind • Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald

... contain a very fair supply of underclothing, socks, handkerchiefs, etc., with a tooth brush, a hair brush and comb, and a sponge. Never in his life had Dodger been so well supplied with clothing before. There were four white shirts, two tennis shirts, half a dozen handkerchiefs and the same number of socks, with three changes ...
— Adrift in New York - Tom and Florence Braving the World • Horatio Alger

... Mr. Darwin investigates the cell-making instinct of the hive-bee. His method of dealing with it is representative. He falls back from the more perfectly to the less perfectly developed instinct—from the hive-bee to the humble bee, which uses its own cocoon as a comb, and to classes of bees of intermediate skill, endeavouring to show how the passage might be gradually made from the lowest to the highest. The saving of wax is the most important point in the economy of bees. Twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar are said to be needed ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall

... be spoken, for music, sweetness, and a knowledge of anatomy? If Paddy is unrivalled at swearing, he fairly throws the world behind him at the blarney. In professing friendship, and making love, give him but a taste of the native, and he is a walking honey-comb, that every woman who sees him wishes to have a lick at; and Heaven knows, that frequently, at all times, and in all places, does he get himself licked on ...
— Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee • William Carleton

... limbs. You need not try to comb out or shove back the matted locks. Wrap him in a sheet. Put him in a box. Two men will carry it down to the wagon at the door. With chalk, write on the top of the box the name of the ...
— The Abominations of Modern Society • Rev. T. De Witt Talmage

... typhoids was built and the casualties diminished, partly because most of the Belgians had already been killed or wounded, and partly because the remaining few had not much fighting to do except hold the line behind the inundations. A faint murmur reached us that a comb-out was going to take place among the British Red Cross Ambulance drivers, and we wondered who would replace them if they were sent up ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp

... like his father, except that he was larger-boned and promised to grow into a much bigger man. His hair was uncompromisingly red, and grew in such irregular fashion that the comb was not made which could subdue it. He had the wide-open, fighting blue eyes of the Chief Inspector, and when he smiled the presence of two broken teeth lent ...
— Tales of Chinatown • Sax Rohmer

... time in the society of the horse. Aside from attending to his wants, such as food and water, she more than once took comb and brush in hand and gave him a thorough cleaning. This invariably brought a grin to the ugly features of Miguel, and when the Judge was present, which was not often, a smile of delight mixed with derision to his ruddy features. But never would Helen permit ...
— Bred of the Desert - A Horse and a Romance • Marcus Horton

... lived in the Zooelogical Gardens at Berlin. He had a very kind keeper named Peens, who used to comb out the long waving hair that grew ...
— The Nursery, April 1873, Vol. XIII. - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest People • Various

... treasures than were ever dreamed of in ancient Golconda. There was everything the soldier's heart might desire, from gun grease and cigarette paper down to wine and provisions; the whole stored away in a literal honey-comb of shelves and drawers with which the ...
— With Those Who Wait • Frances Wilson Huard

... descent from the top. He shouted a wordless greeting, and heard their answering yells. In another minute or two they were pulling up at the house, where he had hurried to meet them. Val, tucking a side comb hastily into her freshly coiled hair, her pretty self clothed all in white linen, appeased eagerly ...
— Lonesome Land • B. M. Bower

... be brought upon Deck, and Roll called two or three Times a Day; they should be made to comb their Hair, and wash their Hands and Face every Day, and to shift themselves sometimes, if possible; and in every respect keep themselves as clean as the Nature of the Service will admit; and proper Exercises should be contrived, to keep them ...
— An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany • Donald Monro

... sharp will some day find another sharper wit; It always makes the Devil laugh to see a biter bit; It takes two Spaniards, any day, to comb a Yankee o'er— Even two like Don ...
— Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea • Charles H. L. Johnston

... plenty of hooks, and her gowns are kept together, each on one. Her hats are in their boxes on the shelves, her shoes in their bag. Her bureau is orderly, the silver clean and shining. Her hair-brush is washed at least once a week, to keep it white and fresh, and the comb is never allowed to have bits of hair in it, but is as clean as the brush. Her wash-stand is always perfectly clean and tidy, and nothing is ever left about in the room. Most important of all, the air of her room is always fresh and sweet, because the window ...
— A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl - Margaret's Saturday Mornings • Caroline French Benton

... believe; wasn't it wonderful of him! Such a relief from the conventional way! When I was quite a girl I used to adore a man in Paris who played the 'cello divinely—a perfect marvel!—but he wouldn't comb his hair or blow his nose properly—and it wasn't very nice!—not that it mattered much, he was such a wonderful artist! Oh yes, I know! it wouldn't have lessened his genius to have wiped his nose with a handkerchief instead of—! ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli

... deacons, stating that I had not been explicit enough in my answer, and wanted me to say, 1st. Whether I had helped Deacon Hubbard hive his bees on Sunday. 2d. Whether I had ever received from him a large pan of honey in the comb? 3d. Whether my father was a member of the church? 4th. Whether he would give his consent for me to come to G—— on business of great importance if they would pay my expenses, and how ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... the Cinnamon Gardens, in which I delight not. They are an imposition, and they only serve as an addition to the disappointments of a visitor to Colombo. In fact, the whole place is a series of disappointments. You see a native woman clad in snow-white petticoats, a beautiful tortoiseshell comb fastened in her raven hair; you pass her—you look back—wonderful! she has a beard! Deluded stranger, this is only another disappointment; it is a Cingalese Appo—a man—no, not a man—a something ...
— Eight Years' Wandering in Ceylon • Samuel White Baker

... easily remedied," she laughed. "I'm ready now," and with dexterous use of a side-comb she produced the ...
— The Moving Picture Girls - First Appearances in Photo Dramas • Laura Lee Hope

... narrow bed, a small chest of drawers with a cheap mirror above it, and a chair. The one window was draped with a daintily-flowered material, which Donald decided was calico, a cover of the same material lay across the chest, and on it—in the place of honor between an old comb and brush stood a small blue-and-white jar, whose cheaply glazed surface caught the flicker of the fire and winked at him as though it were aware of the absurdity of anything so trivial being held in such high esteem. More of the "calico," which really was an inexpensive but tasteful ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... shoes coloured satin. Considered as a costume of their own, I begin to think it rather pretty. The oldest women here or in Mexico never wear caps; nothing but their own gray hair, sometimes cut short, sometimes turned up with a comb, and not unusually tied behind in a pigtail. There is no attempt to conceal the ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca

... "Need a comb, don't I?" he grinned. "Now, I am going to tell you about the surprise I promised you, Mother. I've pieced together that old broken down buggy out in the barn, and, when I can afford to buy some paint for ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Rockies • Frank Gee Patchin

... oak upon any of the inferior light-coloured woods is to give the surface a coat of Stephens's satin-wood stain, and to draw a soft graining-comb gently over it, and when the streaky appearance is thus produced a camel-hair pencil should be taken and the veins formed with white stain. This is made by digesting three-quarters of an ounce of flake white (subnitrate of bismuth), and about ...
— French Polishing and Enamelling - A Practical Work of Instruction • Richard Bitmead

... throwing leaves on it, and making a great smoke; they then opened the tree, and gained about two pails full of honey, which they brought in just as the family were about to go to bed. When they went out the next morning they found a bear very busy at the remains of the comb, but the animal made off before they could ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat

... there was nothing attractive in the appearance or manners of Mr. Mudge. He had a coarse hard face, while his head was surmounted by a shock of red hair, which to all appearance had suffered little interference from the comb for a time which the observer would scarcely venture to compute. There was such an utter absence of refinement about the man, that Paul, who had been accustomed to the gentle manners of his father, was repelled by the contrast which this ...
— Paul Prescott's Charge • Horatio Alger

... close woollen or knitted caps; two centuries ago hats were worn in the house. Pepys, in his diary, wrote: "September, 1664, got a severe cold because he took off his hat at dinner;" and again, in January, 1665, he got another cold by sitting too long with his head bare, to allow his wife's maid to comb his hair and wash his ears; and Lord Clarendon, in his essay, speaking of the decay of respect due the aged, says "that in his younger days he never kept his hat on before those older than himself, except at dinner." In the thirteenth century Pope Innocent ...
— Harper's Young People, November 18, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears, and please help by going and getting your things. It's this awful standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back ...
— Tutors' Lane • Wilmarth Lewis

... we came back to his lodgings. I wanted to go away, and he gave me a knock on the head and broke my comb. I got angry and said I'd go away, and he took the ring off his finger and gave it to me so that I ...
— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy

... of all, if cut with care, Her horns make combs to comb our hair; And so we learn—thanks to our teachers, That cows are good ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin

... morning; barber (at last); came back wiser and sadder man; can safely stow away comb and brush for a month; two packets of candles by piece of luck. Grand dinner; roast mutton, rice, mealies, and canned quinces. May I never forget that ...
— Woman's Endurance • A.D.L.

... offspring of Umpikazi, Eyer of the cattle of men; Bird of Maube, fleet as a bullet, Sleek, erect, of beautiful parts; Thy cattle like the comb of the bees; O head too large, too huddled to move; Devourer of Moselekatze, son of Machobana; Devourer of 'Swazi, son of Sobuza; Breaker of the gates of Machobana; Devourer of Gundave of Machobana; A monster in size, of mighty power; Devourer of Ungwati of ancient ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... about those, either," Savina assented; "but the stores, yes. I have to have a mantilla and a high comb right away, now; and—I warn you—if it's only in our room I'm going to wear them. If I could get you into it I'd bring back a shell jacket covered with green braid and a wide scarlet sash, or whatever an ...
— Cytherea • Joseph Hergesheimer

... was an odd bubbling, that put her in mind of blowing the soap-suds into a honey-comb when preparing them for bubble blowing; but when she looked round she saw something very unlike the long pipes her brother called "churchwardens," or the basin of soap-suds. There was a beautifully shaped glass bottle, and into it went a long, long twisting tube, like a snake coiled on the floor, ...
— Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe • Charlotte M. Yonge

... bowls; and all were jovial and ready with talk, and wit, and glee. The table was spread with luxuries. The savory viands smoked from multiplied motherly platters; and there were Indian bread, potato and turnip sauce, cranberry and wild plum sauce, a stack of wild honey in the snow-white comb, and cakes ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... never encroach upon one another's stores; and regard for decorous conduct from the cock, who, when he desires to unite with the hen, promises to buy her a cloak long enough to reach to the ground, and when the hen reminds him of his promise, he shakes his comb and says, "May I be deprived of my comb, if I do not buy it when I have the means." The grasshopper also has a lesson to teach to man. All the summer through it sings, until its belly bursts, and death claims it. Though it knows the fate that awaits it, ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... the old-fashioned stories in this volume I find only one that seems to me "really funny," and that is "Uncle David's Nonsensical Story about the Giants and Fairies." Think of a giant so tall that "he was obliged to climb up a ladder to comb his own hair." But this bit of humor is not so good as a very modern nonsense-story entitled "The Giant's Shoes," which I read the other day, and from which the Managing Editor permits me to quote ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... around which more bees buzzed industriously. A few waves of the smoke torches quieted these, and Charley swung himself up on the limb beside the hole. A little more smoke completed the job and with his hunting-knife he dug out great squares of the clear, dripping comb, which he passed down to his companions who had stripped off a slab of hickory bark ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... pins of another but quickly-moving roller perform the splitting and the combing of the fibre. The pins of the slowly-moving roller hold, so to speak, the strick, while the pins of the quickly-moving roller comb out the fibres and split adhering parts asunder so as to make a ...
— The Jute Industry: From Seed to Finished Cloth • T. Woodhouse and P. Kilgour

... is thus so far prepared, they cover it with a greasy cloth, which surrounds their head, covers the one half of their nose, and ties below their chin. To give a brilliancy to their eyes, they comb the eye-lashes with a great copper needle, which they have rubbed upon a blue stone. Next comes the adjustment of their drapery; and here all the art lies in plaiting it neatly, and so as to keep the folds, in doing which they employ neither pins, ...
— Perils and Captivity • Charlotte-Adelaide [nee Picard] Dard

... leaning on the stump of a tree for his support. The English lost about two hundred men, and those chiefly of the detachment under Colonel Williams; for they had very few either killed or wounded in the attack upon their camp, and not any of distinction, except colonel Tit-comb killed, and the general himself and major Nichols wounded. Among the slain of the detachment, which would probably have been entirely cut off had not lieutenant-colonel Cole been sent out from the camp with three hundred men, ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... breakers until they close gurgling over our heads and hide us from all curious glances. Our little nutshell, in perpetual motion, is drawn down into the deep valleys of the ocean waves, or tossed upwards on the comb of the following breaker. We are soaked to the skin, and the spray covers us like a silvery veil; our boat as well as ourselves is daubed with a salt crust, our eyes smart and our lips have a briny tang, but to us sailors it's a joy to ...
— The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner • Georg-Guenther von Forstner

... too rapidly, do we approach that summer dawn when Belle, dressed neatly and plainly, her hair no longer plaited in Romany fashion or floating in the wind, but secured by a comb, uncovered no longer, but wearing a bonnet, her features very pale, allowed her cold hand to be wrung—it was for the last time—by the unconscious Rye. The latter ascended to the plain and thence looked down towards the dingle. "Isopel Berners stood ...
— Isopel Berners - The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825 • George Borrow

... art a heedless girl! What thou wilt be——" She checked herself. "Come at once to the kitchen. Wash thy face and hands and comb out that nest of frowze. Let me see"—surveying her. "Thou must have a clean pinafore. ...
— A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... year, be the child boy or girl, its hair is allowed to grow. (Up to this time the whole head has been shaven: now three patches are allowed to grow, one on each side and one at the back of the head.) On this occasion also a sponsor is selected. A large tray, on which are a comb, scissors, paper string, a piece of string for tying the hair in a knot, cotton wool, and the bit of dried fish or seaweed which accompanies presents, one of each, and seven rice straws—these seven ...
— Tales of Old Japan • Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

... a fine-tooth comb and you couldn't get a jury to convict when it's up against the ...
— Brand Blotters • William MacLeod Raine

... sang songs and choruses; so they worked and sang till they came to a tree covered with beautiful flowers; they all longed to adorn their hair with the flowers but the difficulty was that they had no comb or looking glass; at last one girl said that a bonga Kora lived close by who could supply them; thereupon there was a great dispute as to who should go to the bonga Kora and ask for a mirror and comb; each wanted the other to go; and in the end they made the Sarsagun girl go. ...
— Folklore of the Santal Parganas • Cecil Henry Bompas

... mentions Mahomet's being bewitched by the Jews. Having made a waxen image of him, they hid it in a well, together with a comb and a tuft of hair tied in eleven knots. The prophet fell into a very wasting condition, till he had a dream that informed him where these implements of witchcraft were, and accordingly had them taken away. In order to untie the knots Gabriel read to him the two last chapters of the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 4 • Various

... the bill of the drake nukta or comb-duck is now much enlarged. This betokens the approach of the nesting ...
— A Bird Calendar for Northern India • Douglas Dewar

... her coarse, handsome face at the kitchen sink, began now to arrange her hair with a small comb that had been wedged into the sinkboard. Marguerite, having completed similar operations, offered to walk with Julia to the ...
— The Story Of Julia Page - Works of Kathleen Norris, Volume V. • Kathleen Norris

... political animal. That is to say, there is a political instinct in him which causes him to organize political societies and make laws; he is a state builder in the same way that the beaver is a dam builder, or the oriole is a nest builder, or the bee is a comb builder. ...
— The Church and Modern Life • Washington Gladden

... arranged and handsomely trimmed beard, set off features, which, but for a wild lightness of eye, might have been termed handsome. A ridge of scarlet velvet carried across the top of his cap indicated, rather than positively represented, the professional cock's comb, which distinguished the head gear of a fool in right of office. His bauble, made of ebony, was crested as usual with a fool's head, with ass's ears formed of silver; but so small, and so minutely carved, that, till very closely examined, ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott

... recognized some difference between the two kinds of kittens, but what difference always puzzled her. She would clean up a kitten and comb it slick, then turn to one of the squirrels and wash it, but rarely, if ever, completing the work because of some disconcerting un-catlike antic. As the squirrels grew older they also grew friskier, and soon ...
— Roof and Meadow • Dallas Lore Sharp

... acquaintances for a loan. Having taken these steps in the hope of starving Nepcote into surrender if he was not caught in the meantime, Merrington next directed the resources at his command to putting London through a fine-tooth comb, as he expressed it, in the effort to get hold ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees

... desired to see the lame Man's affected Part, to the end he might do something, which (he believ'd) would give him Ease. After he had viewed it accordingly, he pull'd out an Instrument, somewhat like a Comb, which was made of a split Reed, with 15 Teeth of Rattle-Snakes set at much the same distance, as in a large Horn-Comb: With these he scratch'd the place where the Lameness chiefly lay, till the Blood came, bathing it, both before and after Incision, with warm Water, spurted ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson

... shining doors; And with ambrosia first her lovely skin She purified, with fragrant oil anointing, Ambrosial, breathing forth such odours sweet, That, wav'd above the brazen floor of Jove, All earth and Heav'n were with the fragrance fill'd; O'er her fair skin this precious oil she spread; Comb'd out her flowing locks, and with her hand Wreath'd the thick masses of the glossy hair, Immortal, bright, that crown'd th' imperial head. A robe ambrosial then, by Pallas wrought, She donn'd, in many a curious pattern trac'd, With golden brooch beneath ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... and he gives my T-shirt a dirty look. I go put a sweater over it and run a comb through my hair, but I'm hanged if I'll go out looking like ...
— It's like this, cat • Emily Neville

... native. patriota patriot. pausa pause. pavoroso fearful, awful. paz f. peace. pecado sin. pecar to sin. pecho breast. pedazo piece. pedir to beg, ask. Pedro Peter. pedunculo stalk. pegar to beat, strike; stick fast, (close). peinar to comb. pelea fight, battle. pelear to fight. peleteria fur trade. peligro peril. pelo hair. pellizco pinch. pena pain, penalty. pender to hang. penetrar to penetrate. penitencia penitence. ...
— Novelas Cortas • Pedro Antonio de Alarcon

... reply, but thoughtfully puffed at-his pipe; then laying down his smoking counselor upon the window-sill he thrust his right hand into a deep breeches pocket, and extracted a black-horn pocket comb, with which he began at once, most carefully to arrange ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester



Words linked to "Comb" :   heckle, device, straighten, tease, plate, fluff, roach, teasing, tooth, gallinacean, tool, groom, straighten out, haircare, hair care, gallinaceous bird, neaten, combing, comb-footed spider, sleek down, comb-plate, slick, hatchel, disentangle, hackle, comb jelly, ctenophore, search, crest, slick down, hairdressing



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