"toothcomb" meaning in English

See toothcomb in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈtuːθkəʊm/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈtuθˌkoʊm/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-toothcomb.wav [Received-Pronunciation], En-us-toothcomb.ogg [General-American] Forms: toothcombs [plural]
Etymology: The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun. Etymology templates: {{glossary|noun}} noun, {{m|en|fine toothcomb}} fine toothcomb, {{rebracketing|en|fine-tooth comb|nocap=1}} rebracketing of fine-tooth comb, {{glossary|verb}} verb Head templates: {{en-noun}} toothcomb (plural toothcombs)
  1. (British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search. Tags: British, figuratively, proscribed, sometimes Translations (comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search): старателно претърсване (staratelno pretǎrsvane) [neuter] (Bulgarian), pente dental [masculine] (Portuguese), pente fino (english: metaphorical) [masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-toothcomb-en-noun-AYF1Op0m Categories (other): British English, British English, English rebracketings Disambiguation of British English: 91 3 6 Disambiguation of English rebracketings: 46 13 41
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: tooth comb, tooth-comb
Etymology number: 1

Noun

IPA: /ˈtuːθkəʊm/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈtuθˌkoʊm/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-toothcomb.wav [Received-Pronunciation], En-us-toothcomb.ogg [General-American] Forms: toothcombs [plural]
Etymology: From tooth + comb. Etymology templates: {{taxfmt|Lemur catta|species}} Lemur catta, {{compound|en|tooth|comb}} tooth + comb Head templates: {{en-noun}} toothcomb (plural toothcombs)
  1. (zoology) A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur. Categories (topical): Zoology
    Sense id: en-toothcomb-en-noun-Rm6kdiwf Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 49 3 26 Topics: biology, natural-sciences, zoology
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: tooth comb, tooth-comb
Etymology number: 2

Verb

IPA: /ˈtuːθkəʊm/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈtuθˌkoʊm/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-toothcomb.wav [Received-Pronunciation], En-us-toothcomb.ogg [General-American] Forms: toothcombs [present, singular, third-person], toothcombing [participle, present], toothcombed [participle, past], toothcombed [past]
Etymology: The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun. Etymology templates: {{glossary|noun}} noun, {{m|en|fine toothcomb}} fine toothcomb, {{rebracketing|en|fine-tooth comb|nocap=1}} rebracketing of fine-tooth comb, {{glossary|verb}} verb Head templates: {{en-verb}} toothcomb (third-person singular simple present toothcombs, present participle toothcombing, simple past and past participle toothcombed)
  1. (rare) To use a toothcomb on (something). Tags: British, proscribed, rare, sometimes, transitive
    Sense id: en-toothcomb-en-verb-23hlu~wA Categories (other): English rebracketings Disambiguation of English rebracketings: 46 13 41
  2. (figurative) To search (something) thoroughly. Tags: British, figuratively, proscribed, sometimes, transitive Translations (to search thoroughly): претърсвам (pretǎrsvam) (Bulgarian), passar o pente fino (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-toothcomb-en-verb-2ax5~xaK Categories (other): English rebracketings Disambiguation of English rebracketings: 46 13 41 Disambiguation of 'to search thoroughly': 1 99
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: tooth-comb
Etymology number: 1

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for toothcomb meaning in English (19.3kB)

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  "etymology_number": 1,
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      "args": {
        "1": "noun"
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  "etymology_text": "The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "toothcombs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
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        {
          "_dis": "91 3 6",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1828 April 19, The Hobart Town Courier, Hobart, Tasmania, page 3, column 2",
          "text": "[advertisement] [A] quantity of Pencil Cases, Fans, Tooth-combs, and Nail-brushes, a Pier-glass, and various other very useful articles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1850, Al Hariri of Basra, “The Makamah of Damietta. The Words of Hareth ibn-Hammam.”, in Theodore Preston, transl., Makamat: Or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al Hariri of Basra […], London: […] W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen & Co., […]; Paris: B. Duprat, →OCLC, footnote 4, page 374",
          "text": "When the Arabs speak of things as alike in respect of good qualities, they call them 'as like as the teeth of a tooth-comb;' whereas, if they speak of similarity in bad qualities, they say 'as like as the teeth of an ass.'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1853 January 14, James Henry, Notes of a Twelve Years’ Voyage of Discovery in the First Six Books of the Eneis, Dresden: Meinhold and Sons, →OCLC",
          "text": "Racks, shears and toothcombs here, sit down: / With such a shaggy, shockdog crown / Who but some rustic, clodpoll clown / Would think of venturing into town?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1854, Octavius Freire Owen, “The Degenerate Bees”, in John Gay, The Fables of John Gay Illustrated. […], London: George Routledge & Co. […], →OCLC, footnote 2, page 228",
          "text": "Thin-skinned dunces, too, in power, hate satire, to use Sidney [i.e., Sydney] Smith's simile, for the same reason as \"fleas detest tooth-combs,\" because they cannot escape it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868 March 1, Matthew Browne, “A Working Man’s Courtship”, in Norman McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IX, London: Strahan and Co., […], →OCLC, letter XI, page 188, column 2",
          "text": "Ah, Sir, you needn't look. I never had nothing in my head since I was born, and I always use the toothcomb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1873 August 1, “Annual General Meeting at Maldon, 1st August, 1873”, in Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society, volume V, part IV, Colchester, Essex: […] Museum, Colchester Castle, […] “Essex & West Suffolk Gazette” Office, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 318",
          "text": "Mr. John Oxley Parker exhibited the following miscellaneous objects found at Othona (Bradwell-juxta-Mare), [...] two pieces of Roman tooth combs, [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877, Douglas Straight, “Joey the Tumbler”, in Old Pictures in a New Frame, London: Frederick Warne and Co., […], →OCLC, page 29",
          "text": "I wandered up and down the streets, vainly hoping to be struck by some brilliant inspiration that should select for me the sort of work to take in hand. I would be a crossing-sweeper, a shoeblack, a vendor of cherries, a seller of penny watches or tooth[-]combs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1885, Clinton [Thomas] Dent, “A Day across Country”, in Above the Snow Line: Mountaineering Sketches between 1870 and 1880, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 121",
          "text": "Gradually, as we became more wet, we grew more desperate, and before long floundered down as regardless of bumps as a bluebottle in a conservatory: at one moment slithering over wet slabs of rock to which damp tufts of moss were loosely adherent, at another climbing carefully over gigantic toothcombs of fallen trees, then plunging head foremost—sometimes not exactly head foremost—through jungle-like masses of long grass and dwarf brushwood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913 December 13, “The Smuggling of Arms”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette: The Weekly Edition of the North-China Daily News, volume CIX (New Series), number 2418, Shanghai: […] North-China Daily News & Herald, Ld., →OCLC, page 791, column 3",
          "text": "The only instrument that will adequately meet the case is a general Consular warrant under which the police shall be able to make a house to house search, swooping down upon any premises which they have reason to suspect, and, metaphorically speaking, drawing the contents through a tooth[-]comb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Ian Fleming, “The Tunnel of Rats”, in From Russia, with Love, London: Vintage Books, published 2012, part 2 (The Execution), page 197",
          "text": "The Russians were suspicious as hell. I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Peter James, chapter 9, in Dead Letter Drop, London: Pan Books, published 2014, page 73",
          "text": "I want you to go through its staff with the finest toothcomb you can lay your hands on, and to miss out nothing, absolutely nothing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, [John St.] Bodfan Gruffydd, “Acknowledgements”, in Tree Form, Size and Colour: A Guide to Selection, Planting and Design, London: E. & F. N. Spon, Chapman & Hall, published 1995, page xi",
          "text": "Jeremy Purseglove went through the tables with a tooth comb, which helped no end with ecology and naming; [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 September 2, Margaret Hodge (chair), “Oral Evidence”, in Committee of Public Accounts, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Charges for Customer Telephone Lines: Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2013–14 […] (HC 617), London: The Stationery Office, published 11 November 2013, archived from the original on 2013-11-11, question 103, page Ev 16",
          "text": "I just want some assurance that HMRC [Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs] will go through the deal with a toothcomb to ensure that the taxpayer gets the proper benefit under the law of the tax that Vodafone should pay on the massive windfall profit that it is making.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search."
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          "comb#Noun"
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        [
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          "finely"
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          "teeth",
          "tooth"
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          "metaphorical"
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          "means",
          "means"
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          "making",
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          "thorough"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "figuratively",
        "proscribed",
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "staratelno pretǎrsvane",
          "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "старателно претърсване"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
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          "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pente dental"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "english": "metaphorical",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pente fino"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "tooth comb"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "tooth-comb"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  "word": "toothcomb"
}

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          "ref": "2013, Judith Lissauer Cromwell, “Nursing”, in Florence Nightingale, Feminist, Jefferson, N.C., London: McFarland & Company, page 234",
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        "To use a toothcomb on (something)."
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        "(rare) To use a toothcomb on (something)."
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The flat was toothcombed for any trace of drugs.",
          "type": "example"
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        {
          "ref": "1967, Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, London: Vintage Books, published 2013, page 50",
          "text": "A number of locals, including Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall, were already assisting the police in the careful toothcombing of the surrounding scrub.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 January 11, Paul Smith, “Provenance”, in Saving a Grasshopper, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, pages 68–69",
          "text": "He also had one of his employees toothcomb the journals for other mentions of 44-79731 and she was able to find several more entries, including a notation that it was picked up from the depot at Villacoublay by the 407ᵗʰ FA Gp. in October of 1944.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Matthew James Dicken, Peace in Words: the First World War, 1914–1918, [United Kingdom?]: Contemporary Simplicity Publishing",
          "text": "Curiously scouring, rummaging, searching … / Leaving no stone unturned. / Oddly seeking, hunting, sifting … / Shelves painstakingly toothcombed.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To search (something) thoroughly."
      ],
      "id": "en-toothcomb-en-verb-2ax5~xaK",
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        "(figurative) To search (something) thoroughly."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
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          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "pretǎrsvam",
          "sense": "to search thoroughly",
          "word": "претърсвам"
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        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "pt",
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          "sense": "to search thoroughly",
          "word": "passar o pente fino"
        }
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  "synonyms": [
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
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{
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  "etymology_text": "From tooth + comb.",
  "forms": [
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          "kind": "topical",
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          "_dis": "23 49 3 26",
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        {
          "ref": "1979, Frederick S. Szalay, Eric Delson, “Suborder Strepsirhini”, in Evolutionary History of the Primates, New York, N.Y., London: Academic Press, page 103, column 1",
          "text": "There is no reason to doubt that the tooth comb is homologous in all the lemuriforms. The term tooth comb has recently been replaced by Martin (1972) with the concept of \"tooth scraper,\" and he has stated that, although most living species of strepsirhines use their tooth combs for grooming, this is a secondary function.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Robert A. Whitney, “Taxonomy”, in B. Taylor Bennett, Christian R. Abee, Roy Henrickson, editors, Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research: Biology and Management, San Diego, Calif., London: Academic Press, page 34, column 2",
          "text": "Anthropoids are characterized by having short faces, dry noses, and lacking prominent whiskers. [...] There is no toothcomb or sublingua, and the number of teeth varies from 36 in some platyrrhines to 32 in the catarrhines.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Friderun Ankel-Simons, “Teeth”, in Primate Anatomy: An Introduction, 2nd edition, San Diego, Calif., London: Academic Press, page 206",
          "text": "Members of the Prosimii, with the exception of Tarsius, have extremely specialized incisors. The lower incisors are tilted forward—they are then called procumbent—and are flattened laterally, forming a toothcomb. [...] The lower canine is frequently included in this toothcomb, and its morphology is assimilated to the shape of the procumbent incisors.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Susan Cachel, “The Eocene Primate Radiation”, in Fossil Primates (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, page 152",
          "text": "Must interest has centered on the first appearance of the prosimian tooth-comb or tooth-scraper [...]. The tooth-comb is formed by lower incisors and canines that are elongated and slender, and that form a procumbent unit in the anterior mandible. Upper incisors are lost, reduced, or moved to accommodate the tooth-comb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Sergi López-Torres, Keegan R. Selig, Anne M. Burrows, Mary T. Silcox, “The Toothcomb of Karanisia clarki: Was this Species an Exudate-feeder?”, in K. A. I. Nekaris, Anne M. Burrows, editors, Evolution, Ecology and Conservation of Lorises and Pottos, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 67",
          "text": "Toothcombs have evolved independently in various mammalian lineages, including primates, scandentians, and dermopterans, but the presence of a six-toothed toothcomb composed of four lower incisors and two canines (I₁, I₂ and C₁, bilaterally) is a distinct feature of extant strepsirrhine primates [...].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur."
      ],
      "id": "en-toothcomb-en-noun-Rm6kdiwf",
      "links": [
        [
          "zoology",
          "zoology"
        ],
        [
          "comb-like",
          "comblike"
        ],
        [
          "dental",
          "dental"
        ],
        [
          "structure",
          "structure#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "found",
          "find#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "lower jaw",
          "lower jaw"
        ],
        [
          "primate",
          "primate"
        ],
        [
          "long",
          "long#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "flat",
          "flat#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "front teeth",
          "front teeth"
        ],
        [
          "microscopic",
          "microscopic"
        ],
        [
          "grooves",
          "groove#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "used",
          "use#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "grooming",
          "groom#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "fur",
          "fur#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(zoology) A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "natural-sciences",
        "zoology"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtuːθkəʊm/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtuθˌkoʊm/",
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        "General-American"
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      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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      "text": "Audio (RP)"
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/En-us-toothcomb.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "tooth comb"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "tooth-comb"
    }
  ],
  "word": "toothcomb"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "British English",
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English rebracketings",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English transitive verbs",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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      "expansion": "noun",
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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      },
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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    },
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun.",
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    {
      "form": "toothcombs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
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    {
      "args": {},
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English proscribed terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1828 April 19, The Hobart Town Courier, Hobart, Tasmania, page 3, column 2",
          "text": "[advertisement] [A] quantity of Pencil Cases, Fans, Tooth-combs, and Nail-brushes, a Pier-glass, and various other very useful articles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1850, Al Hariri of Basra, “The Makamah of Damietta. The Words of Hareth ibn-Hammam.”, in Theodore Preston, transl., Makamat: Or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al Hariri of Basra […], London: […] W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen & Co., […]; Paris: B. Duprat, →OCLC, footnote 4, page 374",
          "text": "When the Arabs speak of things as alike in respect of good qualities, they call them 'as like as the teeth of a tooth-comb;' whereas, if they speak of similarity in bad qualities, they say 'as like as the teeth of an ass.'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1853 January 14, James Henry, Notes of a Twelve Years’ Voyage of Discovery in the First Six Books of the Eneis, Dresden: Meinhold and Sons, →OCLC",
          "text": "Racks, shears and toothcombs here, sit down: / With such a shaggy, shockdog crown / Who but some rustic, clodpoll clown / Would think of venturing into town?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1854, Octavius Freire Owen, “The Degenerate Bees”, in John Gay, The Fables of John Gay Illustrated. […], London: George Routledge & Co. […], →OCLC, footnote 2, page 228",
          "text": "Thin-skinned dunces, too, in power, hate satire, to use Sidney [i.e., Sydney] Smith's simile, for the same reason as \"fleas detest tooth-combs,\" because they cannot escape it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868 March 1, Matthew Browne, “A Working Man’s Courtship”, in Norman McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IX, London: Strahan and Co., […], →OCLC, letter XI, page 188, column 2",
          "text": "Ah, Sir, you needn't look. I never had nothing in my head since I was born, and I always use the toothcomb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1873 August 1, “Annual General Meeting at Maldon, 1st August, 1873”, in Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society, volume V, part IV, Colchester, Essex: […] Museum, Colchester Castle, […] “Essex & West Suffolk Gazette” Office, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 318",
          "text": "Mr. John Oxley Parker exhibited the following miscellaneous objects found at Othona (Bradwell-juxta-Mare), [...] two pieces of Roman tooth combs, [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877, Douglas Straight, “Joey the Tumbler”, in Old Pictures in a New Frame, London: Frederick Warne and Co., […], →OCLC, page 29",
          "text": "I wandered up and down the streets, vainly hoping to be struck by some brilliant inspiration that should select for me the sort of work to take in hand. I would be a crossing-sweeper, a shoeblack, a vendor of cherries, a seller of penny watches or tooth[-]combs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1885, Clinton [Thomas] Dent, “A Day across Country”, in Above the Snow Line: Mountaineering Sketches between 1870 and 1880, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 121",
          "text": "Gradually, as we became more wet, we grew more desperate, and before long floundered down as regardless of bumps as a bluebottle in a conservatory: at one moment slithering over wet slabs of rock to which damp tufts of moss were loosely adherent, at another climbing carefully over gigantic toothcombs of fallen trees, then plunging head foremost—sometimes not exactly head foremost—through jungle-like masses of long grass and dwarf brushwood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1913 December 13, “The Smuggling of Arms”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette: The Weekly Edition of the North-China Daily News, volume CIX (New Series), number 2418, Shanghai: […] North-China Daily News & Herald, Ld., →OCLC, page 791, column 3",
          "text": "The only instrument that will adequately meet the case is a general Consular warrant under which the police shall be able to make a house to house search, swooping down upon any premises which they have reason to suspect, and, metaphorically speaking, drawing the contents through a tooth[-]comb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Ian Fleming, “The Tunnel of Rats”, in From Russia, with Love, London: Vintage Books, published 2012, part 2 (The Execution), page 197",
          "text": "The Russians were suspicious as hell. I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Peter James, chapter 9, in Dead Letter Drop, London: Pan Books, published 2014, page 73",
          "text": "I want you to go through its staff with the finest toothcomb you can lay your hands on, and to miss out nothing, absolutely nothing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, [John St.] Bodfan Gruffydd, “Acknowledgements”, in Tree Form, Size and Colour: A Guide to Selection, Planting and Design, London: E. & F. N. Spon, Chapman & Hall, published 1995, page xi",
          "text": "Jeremy Purseglove went through the tables with a tooth comb, which helped no end with ecology and naming; [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 September 2, Margaret Hodge (chair), “Oral Evidence”, in Committee of Public Accounts, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Charges for Customer Telephone Lines: Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2013–14 […] (HC 617), London: The Stationery Office, published 11 November 2013, archived from the original on 2013-11-11, question 103, page Ev 16",
          "text": "I just want some assurance that HMRC [Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs] will go through the deal with a toothcomb to ensure that the taxpayer gets the proper benefit under the law of the tax that Vodafone should pay on the massive windfall profit that it is making.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search."
      ],
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          "comb",
          "comb#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "finely",
          "finely"
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        [
          "spaced",
          "space#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "teeth",
          "tooth"
        ],
        [
          "metaphorical",
          "metaphorical"
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        [
          "means",
          "means"
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        [
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          "make#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "thorough",
          "thorough"
        ],
        [
          "search",
          "search#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search."
      ],
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        "figuratively",
        "proscribed",
        "sometimes"
      ]
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "tooth comb"
    },
    {
      "word": "tooth-comb"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "staratelno pretǎrsvane",
      "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "старателно претърсване"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pente dental"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "english": "metaphorical",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pente fino"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Oxford English Dictionary"
  ],
  "word": "toothcomb"
}

{
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        "English terms with rare senses"
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        {
          "ref": "2013, Judith Lissauer Cromwell, “Nursing”, in Florence Nightingale, Feminist, Jefferson, N.C., London: McFarland & Company, page 234",
          "text": "8.15 am. Tooth-combed seven heads, had grand sport; mixed bag, measured one teaspoonful; cleanliness is next to godliness!",
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      ],
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        "To use a toothcomb on (something)."
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        "(rare) To use a toothcomb on (something)."
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        {
          "text": "The flat was toothcombed for any trace of drugs.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1967, Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, London: Vintage Books, published 2013, page 50",
          "text": "A number of locals, including Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall, were already assisting the police in the careful toothcombing of the surrounding scrub.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 January 11, Paul Smith, “Provenance”, in Saving a Grasshopper, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Trafford Publishing, pages 68–69",
          "text": "He also had one of his employees toothcomb the journals for other mentions of 44-79731 and she was able to find several more entries, including a notation that it was picked up from the depot at Villacoublay by the 407ᵗʰ FA Gp. in October of 1944.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Matthew James Dicken, Peace in Words: the First World War, 1914–1918, [United Kingdom?]: Contemporary Simplicity Publishing",
          "text": "Curiously scouring, rummaging, searching … / Leaving no stone unturned. / Oddly seeking, hunting, sifting … / Shelves painstakingly toothcombed.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To search (something) thoroughly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "search",
          "search#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "thoroughly",
          "thoroughly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) To search (something) thoroughly."
      ],
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    {
      "word": "tooth-comb"
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    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "pretǎrsvam",
      "sense": "to search thoroughly",
      "word": "претърсвам"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "to search thoroughly",
      "word": "passar o pente fino"
    }
  ],
  "word": "toothcomb"
}

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      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "tooth‧comb"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Zoology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1979, Frederick S. Szalay, Eric Delson, “Suborder Strepsirhini”, in Evolutionary History of the Primates, New York, N.Y., London: Academic Press, page 103, column 1",
          "text": "There is no reason to doubt that the tooth comb is homologous in all the lemuriforms. The term tooth comb has recently been replaced by Martin (1972) with the concept of \"tooth scraper,\" and he has stated that, although most living species of strepsirhines use their tooth combs for grooming, this is a secondary function.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Robert A. Whitney, “Taxonomy”, in B. Taylor Bennett, Christian R. Abee, Roy Henrickson, editors, Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research: Biology and Management, San Diego, Calif., London: Academic Press, page 34, column 2",
          "text": "Anthropoids are characterized by having short faces, dry noses, and lacking prominent whiskers. [...] There is no toothcomb or sublingua, and the number of teeth varies from 36 in some platyrrhines to 32 in the catarrhines.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Friderun Ankel-Simons, “Teeth”, in Primate Anatomy: An Introduction, 2nd edition, San Diego, Calif., London: Academic Press, page 206",
          "text": "Members of the Prosimii, with the exception of Tarsius, have extremely specialized incisors. The lower incisors are tilted forward—they are then called procumbent—and are flattened laterally, forming a toothcomb. [...] The lower canine is frequently included in this toothcomb, and its morphology is assimilated to the shape of the procumbent incisors.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Susan Cachel, “The Eocene Primate Radiation”, in Fossil Primates (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, page 152",
          "text": "Must interest has centered on the first appearance of the prosimian tooth-comb or tooth-scraper [...]. The tooth-comb is formed by lower incisors and canines that are elongated and slender, and that form a procumbent unit in the anterior mandible. Upper incisors are lost, reduced, or moved to accommodate the tooth-comb.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Sergi López-Torres, Keegan R. Selig, Anne M. Burrows, Mary T. Silcox, “The Toothcomb of Karanisia clarki: Was this Species an Exudate-feeder?”, in K. A. I. Nekaris, Anne M. Burrows, editors, Evolution, Ecology and Conservation of Lorises and Pottos, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 67",
          "text": "Toothcombs have evolved independently in various mammalian lineages, including primates, scandentians, and dermopterans, but the presence of a six-toothed toothcomb composed of four lower incisors and two canines (I₁, I₂ and C₁, bilaterally) is a distinct feature of extant strepsirrhine primates [...].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "zoology",
          "zoology"
        ],
        [
          "comb-like",
          "comblike"
        ],
        [
          "dental",
          "dental"
        ],
        [
          "structure",
          "structure#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "found",
          "find#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "lower jaw",
          "lower jaw"
        ],
        [
          "primate",
          "primate"
        ],
        [
          "long",
          "long#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "flat",
          "flat#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "front teeth",
          "front teeth"
        ],
        [
          "microscopic",
          "microscopic"
        ],
        [
          "grooves",
          "groove#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "used",
          "use#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "grooming",
          "groom#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "fur",
          "fur#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(zoology) A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "biology",
        "natural-sciences",
        "zoology"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtuːθkəʊm/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtuθˌkoʊm/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-toothcomb.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/70/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-toothcomb.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-toothcomb.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/70/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-toothcomb.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-toothcomb.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (RP)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-toothcomb.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/56/En-us-toothcomb.ogg/En-us-toothcomb.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/En-us-toothcomb.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "tooth comb"
    },
    {
      "word": "tooth-comb"
    }
  ],
  "word": "toothcomb"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.