comb-out
See also: comb out
English
Etymology
Deverbal from comb out.[1][2] First attested in 1915–1920 (sense 1 and sense 2).[1] First attested in 1940 (sense 3).[2]
Pronunciation
- enPR: kōm′out′
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkəʊ̯mˌaʊ̯t/
- (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈkoʊ̯mˌaʊ̯t/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈkəʉ̯mˌæɔ̯t/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈkɐʉ̯mˌæʊ̯t/
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /ˈkomˌʌʊ̯t/
- (India) IPA(key): /ˈkoːmˌawʈ/
- Rhymes: -əʊmaʊt
- Hyphenation: comb-out
Noun
comb-out (countable and uncountable, plural comb-outs)
- An act of combing out hair.[1]
- Synonym: teasing
- The identification and removal of someone or something.[1]
- (slang) The act of sorting out.[2] (clarification of this definition is needed)
- 1940, Operator 1384, McCann the Spy, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, page 263:
- McCann and I took ten men each and made a systematic comb-out of the Gardens. Every sniper we found we shot out of hand.
- 1943, Celia Fremlin, “Background: The Town and The Newcomers”, in Harrisson, Tom, editor, Mass-Observation War Factory: A Report[1], quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Vintage/Ebury, published 1987, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 16, lines 15–16:
- I’d like to see a good comb-out up there, to catch out these sort of people.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 “comb-out, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary, accessed 2025-07-23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “comb-out n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
Further reading
- “comb-out”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.