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Comb   /koʊm/   Listen
Comb

noun
1.
A flat device with narrow pointed teeth on one edge; disentangles or arranges hair.
2.
The fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl and other gallinaceous birds.  Synonyms: cockscomb, coxcomb.
3.
Any of several tools for straightening fibers.
4.
Ciliated comb-like swimming plate of a ctenophore.
5.
The act of drawing a comb through hair.  Synonym: combing.



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"Comb" Quotes from Famous Books



... we went over Rivers's place with a fine-tooth comb, and questioned young Gillis about it, and we didn't get a thing. You sure those pistols ...
— Murder in the Gunroom • Henry Beam Piper

... held it, for never had he known such a one before. It was a cap fitting tight to the skull, only running across the crown of it was a stiff raised ridge, of leather perhaps, jagged and pointed something like the comb of a cock. This comb, of brilliant red, was surmounted at its highest point by a ball of black of the size of a small apple. The cap itself was yellow, except its lowest band, which stood out from it and was also black. In the centre of this band upon the forehead glowed a stone ...
— Red Eve • H. Rider Haggard

... hair up to the top of their heads with a comb, the women tie it behind in a club, which is very far from becoming. Both sexes eradicate the hair from under the arm, and the men do the same by their beards, for which purpose, the better sort always carry a pair of silver pincers hanging ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... their ancestors had undoubtedly exercised the functions of a groom in the establishment of William the Conqueror, and that they were consequently entitled to bear upon their arms a stable-bucket azure, between two horses current, and to wear as their crest a curry-comb in base argent, between two wisps of hay proper, they and their descendants, according to the law of arms. But the luxury was expensive: a lump sum to the Heralds, and two pound two to the King's taxes; and so, as time went on, men of large ambition, but of limited means, began ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie

... 1901, Mr. D.V. Williams bicycled to Paddington Station from New Square, Lincoln's Inn. The brown canvas case fitted to the frame of his male bicycle contained a change of clothes, a suit of paijamas, a safety razor, tooth-brush, hair-brush and comb. He himself was wearing a well-cut dark grey suit—Norfolk jacket, ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... Russia, when seeking honey, climbed a very high tree; the trunk of which was hollow, and finding there was a large quantity of comb in it, he descended, and stuck fast in the tenacious substance there deposited. He was so far distant from home, that his voice could not be heard, and he remained two days in this situation, relieving his hunger with the honey. He began to despair of ever being extricated, when a bear who, like ...
— Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals • R. Lee

... was most becoming to Patty. The dull old-gold tints sets off her fair skin, and her bright gold hair, piled high, was topped with a gold and amber comb. Round her throat was an old-fashioned necklace of topazes, lent her by Mrs. Farrington. Altogether, she looked, Philip declared, positively Burne-Jonesey, and he called her the ...
— Patty Blossom • Carolyn Wells

... Glow-worms stood at the door to light them home, and as they passed in, the Fairy thought how charming it must be to dwell in such a lovely place. The floor of wax was pure and white as marble, while the walls were formed of golden honey-comb, and the air was fragrant ...
— Flower Fables • Louisa May Alcott

... home held me back. I have been made a lawyer, but they will not gain by it. They had better have let me remain a theologian. If I live and come among them, I might become a hobgoblin, who would comb down their pride by the grace of God. They behave as if they were God Himself, but must take care to shake off these notions in good time before their godhead becomes a devilhead, as happened to Lucifer, who could not remain ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin

... waving her battered old felt hat at the clucking cluster of hens eddying around her legs as she plowed through the flock towards the chicken house. "Scat. You, Solomon," she called out, directing her words at the bobbing comb of the big rooster strutting at the edge of the mob. "Don't just stand there like a satisfied cowhand after a night in Reno. Get these noisy females outta my way." She batted at the hens and they scattered with angry squawks ...
— Make Mine Homogenized • Rick Raphael

... pair Of mittens out of the Bear's skin, started off again, and soon saw a wigwam from which rose a smoke, and, walking in, he found a family of Begemkessisek, or Black Cats. So, greeting them, he said, "Young folks, comb me down and make me nice, and I will give you these beautiful bear-skin mittens." So the little Black Cats combed him down, and parted his hair, and brushed his tail, and while they were doing this he ...
— The Algonquin Legends of New England • Charles Godfrey Leland

... the country were invited, in order that his son might choose himself a bride. When the two step-sisters heard that they too were to appear among the number, they were delighted, called Cinderella and said, "Comb our hair for us, brush our shoes and fasten our buckles, for we are going to the festival at the King's palace." Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go with them to the dance, and begged her step-mother to allow her ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... of the stone itself. So it showed beneath the bridge, and down 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 ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... "And comb thy beautiful hair. If thou but wet it, then it curls so that any girl would envy thee. And all the women would say that it was from thee, Thora got ...
— An Orkney Maid • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... colts with merry tick-tack of the brush and comb, and after the last stroke on their shining limbs, threw his tools in the box and went ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland

... yellows, set off by the pale chalky white. Evident signs of work were remarked in a made road running up to the Jebel el-Mar (proper), whose strike is 38 (mag.), and whose dip is westward. It is an arte, a cock's-comb of snowy quartz some sixty feet high by forty-five broad at the base; crowning a granitic fold that descends abruptly, with a deep fall on either side, from the "Mother of Plenty." This strangely isolated wall, left standing ...
— The Land of Midian, Vol. 2 • Richard Burton

... once that he was not a native of those parts, and might possibly be a foreigner. He seemed to be of thirty-five or forty years of age, his skin and hair were very dark, and he wore a great black beard, which looked as if it had known neither comb nor scissors for many a long month. Also he was of great size and height, and on his brawny arms, which were bare from the elbows downwards, there were figures and patterns traced in blue and red, ...
— In the Days of Drake • J. S. Fletcher

... 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 ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... then dropped the knife, ducked his head, and threw his arms over it to shield his comb. He backed away a few steps, then turned and bolted into the nearest house. The others, including the woman in the ragged tunic, were twittering in alarm. Only the man in the leather apron was calm; he ...
— Naudsonce • H. Beam Piper

... woods with a new interest when he suspects they hold a colony of bees. What a pleasing secret it is,—a tree with a heart of comb honey, a decayed oak or maple with a bit of Sicily or Mount Hymettus stowed away in its trunk or branches; secret chambers where lies hidden the wealth of ten thousand little freebooters, great nuggets and wedges of precious ore gathered with risk and labor from ...
— The Writings of John Burroughs • John Burroughs

... secretions (see Exod. xxi. 10); that the wife should be up betimes and bake the bread, so as to have some ready in case any one should come begging; that the women should wear a girdle round the waist for decency sake; that they should comb their hair before bathing; that peddlers should hawk their perfumes about the streets in order that women should supply themselves with such things as will attract and please their husbands; and that certain unfortunates (see Lev. xv.) should bathe themselves before ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... sharply. She was just beginning to comb out Maud's hair, and it was astonishing how many knots there appeared to be that evening. "I'm sorry I ...
— Etheldreda the Ready - A School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... that the wind in the casement? nay, no more But the comb drawn through half my hissing hair Laid on my arms-yet my flesh ...
— Chastelard, a Tragedy • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... has cut my purse with full a hundred florins of gold in it; prithee have him arrested that I may have my own again." Whereupon, twelve sergeants or more ran forthwith to the place where hapless Martellino was being carded without a comb, and, forcing their way with the utmost difficulty through the throng, rescued him all bruised and battered from their hands, and led him to the palace; whither he was followed by many who, resenting what he had done, and hearing that he was arrested as a cutpurse, and ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio

... to the southward and westward on the port tack, under every stitch of canvas that would draw; the wind was failing fast; the sea had long since ceased to break; there was now only an occasional white fleecy comb to be seen on the crests of the waves; and the ship was gliding gently along, with a slow, steady, rhythmical rising-and-falling motion over the long heavy swell, at the rate of some five knots in the hour. The skipper was in excellent ...
— The Voyage of the Aurora • Harry Collingwood

... ship on another slanting line and continued to comb the country for such marks as McGuire had seen. And one moment he told himself he was a fool to be on any such hunt, while the next thought would remind him that Mac had believed. And Mac had a level head, and he had radioed ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 • Various

... BRANGAENE. The comb Slides like a keel. Its narrow teeth can find No bottom, neither shore in this blond sea. I never saw thy hair so full, Iseult, Nor yet so heavy! See ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... Prayer-book. The ornaments of the oaken mantelpiece culminated in a shield bearing a cross boutonnee, i.e. with trefoil terminations. It was supported between a merman with a whelk shell and a mermaid with a comb, and another like Siren curled her tail on the top of the gaping baronial helmet above the shield, while two more upheld the main weight of the chimney-piece on either side ...
— The Chaplet of Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Loomis's note the weeks followed each other uneventfully. Ann Eliza's cough clung to her till late in the spring, the reflection in her looking-glass grew more bent and meagre, and her forehead sloped back farther toward the twist of hair that was fastened above her parting by a comb of ...
— Bunner Sisters • Edith Wharton

... he would, under pretence of making studies in painting, test the hospitality of some peasants, procure himself the dress of a woodcutter and a hatchet, casting off the lion's skin to assume that of the woodman; then, with his hands covered with dirt, his hair darkened by means of a leaden comb, his complexion embrowned with a preparation for which one of his old comrades had given him the recipe, he intended, by following the wooded districts, to reach the nearest frontier, walking by night and sleeping in the day in the ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... have I possessed a bit of pomade for the proper arrangement of my locks—which will account for their present dishevelment—Saint Cecilia! but that moon-faced Moor who commands the guard merely laughed at me when I did request a comb;—think you, I say, I have been through all this without calculating chances for escape? But, pardieu! what use? A man of sense will not dream such fool dreams. This I know, there are three sentries yonder in the passageway, a good dozen more under arms in the guard-room beyond, ...
— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish

... opposite the small unbending person, began in a conversational murmur: "M—m, I guess those are tingly-tanglies up there in that curl Lottie's combing; did you ever hear about the tingly-tanglies? They live in little girls' hair, and they aren't any bigger than that, and when anybody tries to comb the hair they curl both weeny legs round, so, and hold on tight with both weeny hands, so, and won't let go!" As I paused, my niece made a queer little sound indicative of query battling with reserve. I ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant

... were holding back my hand. But courage, Antonius, is half the battle! There is no help for it, you must go on. I should spruce myself up a bit first, for they say Master Herman is getting finicky of late. (He takes off his neck-band and ties it on again, takes a comb from his pocket and combs his hair, and dusts his shoes.) Now, I think I will do. This is the moment to knock. See! as sure as I'm an honest man, it's just as if someone were holding back my hand. Come, courage, Antonius! I know that you haven't done anything wrong. ...
— Comedies • Ludvig Holberg

... commanded. Yet it was impossible to be in her presence without feeling the influence of her virgin mien and simple elegance. Her dress was a spotless but exquisitely fine India muslin, well made and accurately fitting; and her dark glossy hair was embellished only by one comb ornamented with pearls, and wearing the usual veil. As for her feet and hands, they were more like those of a fairy than of one human; while her countenance was filled with all the heartfelt tenderness of her honest nature. Around her ivory throat, and over her polished shoulders, hung my own ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper

... drinking it. They talked incoherently, and about matters unconnected with our condition, Peters repeatedly asking me questions about Nantucket. Augustus, too, I remember, approached me with a serious air, and requested me to lend him a pocket-comb, as his hair was full of fish-scales, and he wished to get them out before going on shore. Parker appeared somewhat less affected, and urged me to dive at random into the cabin, and bring up any article ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 3 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... and entered, leaning on the arm of Talleyrand. She wore a dress of white muslin with short sleeves, and a necklace of pearls. Her head was uncovered; and the beautiful braids of her hair, arranged with charming negligence, were held in place by a tortoise-shell comb. The flattering murmur which greeted her appearance was most grateful to her; and never, I believe, did she display more grace ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... itself in the midst of a hard fight, it evinced a desire to combine. The brakemen refused to join the engine-men, though sympathizing with them, but the switchmen were easily persuaded. The switchman of a decade ago could always be counted upon to fight. In behind his comb, tooth-brush and rabbit's foot, he carried a neatly folded, closely written list of grievances upon which he was ready to do battle. Peace troubled ...
— Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike • Cy Warman

... at chivalrous manners, which are ridiculed in verse, in paintings, and sculptures[372]; or at the elegancies of the bad parson who puts in his bag a comb and "a shewer" (mirror).[373] Other poems are adaptations of the "Roman de Renart."[374] The new spirit has penetrated so well into English minds that the adaptation is ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand

... Trouble, draped around his neck, was a white apron, and the barber, with comb and scissors, was just about to cut the little ...
— The Curlytops and Their Playmates - or Jolly Times Through the Holidays • Howard R. Garis

... therefore full four and a half or five miles away from the point where his little detachment had died fighting, and very nearly two miles south, or west of south, of the point where he and McGrath had last been seen by their comrades,—just at dusk,—just at what looked to be the comb or crest of the ridge from the point where Devers had halted his troop and made the dramatic display of his dead. But what looked to be the crest from the west was in point of fact not the crest at all. Invisible to the ...
— Under Fire • Charles King

... than the average with us, badly arranged, and worse lighted. A prisoner was up for burglary. He was a sullen, turbulent-looking fellow; and his counsel, an Old Bailey lawyer, was inquiring, with a pertinacity that astonished while it amused me, about the dirt in a comb. His object was to ascertain "whether it had been used or not"; and, as there were two sides to it, which side had become dirty from being carried in the pocket, and which from legitimate use. Before the prisoner was a toilet-glass, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 106, August, 1866 • Various

... I endeavoured to insinuate myself between the canes, and by dint of coaxing and bending them to make some progress; but a bull-frog might as well have tried to work a passage through the teeth of a comb, and I gave up ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... her companion came to the hut where the old woman lived. They went in, and the hag bade Blanche gather some sticks of wood and build a fire. Meanwhile she sat down beside the hearth and took off her head. She put it in her lap and began to comb her ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle

... the deception the young man was practising. She had entered the room from her walk, warm and careless; her hair, than which none was more beautiful, had strayed on her shoulders, freed, from the confinement of the comb, and a lock was finely contrasted to the rich color of a cheek that almost burnt with the exercise and the excitement. Her dress, white as the first snow of the winter; her looks, as she now turned them on the face of the sleeper, ...
— Precaution • James Fenimore Cooper

... 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. ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... conning-tower of a U-boat, and to dive through the mountainous 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 be the sport of the ...
— The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner • Georg-Guenther von Forstner

... you would be surprised at the possibilities of a little waste paper. He made gorgeous birds, butterflies, and flowers out of paper that once wrapped parcels. Then he asked us for some silk thread, but I had none, so he told us to comb our hair and give him the combings. We did, and with a drop of mucilage he would fasten a hair to a bird's back and then hold it up by the hair. At a few feet's distance it looked exactly as though ...
— Letters of a Woman Homesteader • Elinore Pruitt Stewart

... the way your little finger moved, As you thrust a bare arm backward And made play with your hair And a comb, a silly gilt comb —Ah, God—that I should suffer Because of the way a ...
— War is Kind • Stephen Crane

... And through them looked her soul, large, loving, tender. Her long, light hair was lusterless, except Upon the ends, where burnished sunbeams slept, And on the earlocks; and she looped the curls Back with a shell comb, studded thick with pearls, Costly yet simple. Her pale loveliness, That night, was heightened by her rich, black dress, That trailed behind her, leaving half in sight Her taper arms, and shoulders ...
— Maurine and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... Their brows overhang deep-set, keen eyes, and they have a heavy lower jaw, with teeth as strong as a dog's. Their hair is generally wavy or curly, being usually auburn or black in color. As a rule their faces are almost hidden by beards and whiskers, which they never comb and which, like the hair on top of their heads, are ...
— Around the World in Ten Days • Chelsea Curtis Fraser

... possible—rather, he did not want to think it possible—that they should have met Mary V. But Mexico is always Mexico, and sinister things do happen along its border. The boys were coming on horseback, and they would scatter and comb the draws which Johnny had looked down into as he passed over. He would leave that closer search to the boys, while he himself went farther—as far as Jake could travel ...
— Skyrider • B. M. Bower

... comb maker will furnish you forth as good as new; those grinders you brag of are not your own, Gelid, ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... of Buttons, Coach, and Show, The Beasts that draw thee have more sense than thou. Yet still thou mightst have fool'd behind the Scenes, Have Comb'd thy Wig and set thy Cravat Strings, Made love to Slingsby when she played the Queen, The Coxcomb in ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn

... bonnet with a pair of dirty strings, and therewith the damsel elected to adorn the tousled head, which evidenced but slight acquaintance with comb or brush. She could not find any feminine garments to please her fancy, but there was a boy's jacket, out at elbows and ragged round the edges, which she proudly donned, and as a finishing touch she popped her long slim legs, old shoes ...
— The Making of Mary • Jean Forsyth

... recruit with his breeches in his bundle, tramping along the road singing; the reapers gathered in the venta gateway listening to "Felixmarte of Hircania" read out to them; and those little Hogarthian touches that he so well knew how to bring in, the ox-tail hanging up with the landlord's comb stuck in it, the wine-skins at the bed-head, and those notable examples of hostelry art, Helen going off in high spirits on Paris's arm, and Dido on the tower dropping tears as big as walnuts. Nay, it may ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... the Deep, Following the Nereid? Had they ceased to weep For ever? or, received in coral caves, Wrung life and pity from the softening waves? Did they with Ocean's hidden sovereigns dwell, And sound with Mermen the fantastic shell? 100 Did Neuha with the mermaids comb her hair Flowing o'er ocean as it streamed in air? Or had they perished, and in silence slept Beneath the ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... till the evening, and her hair was therefore in papers—and the very papers themselves looked soiled and often used. Her back hair had been hastily fastened up with a bit of old black ribbon and a comb boasting only two teeth, and the short hairs round the bottom of her well-turned head were jagged and uneven, as though bristling with anger at the want of that attention which they required. She had no collar on, but a tippet of different material and colour from her frock ...
— The Macdermots of Ballycloran • Anthony Trollope

... Duchesse de Guermantes, I said to myself: "This lady is like the Duchesse de Guermantes." Now the chapel from which she was following the service was that of Gilbert the Bad; beneath its flat tombstones, yellowed and bulging like cells of honey in a comb, rested the bones of the old Counts of Brabant; and I remembered having heard it said that this chapel was reserved for the Guermantes family, whenever any of its members came to attend a ceremony at Combray; there was, indeed, ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust

... high and hair comb-tipped, A woman, running, dancing, hied. Adown the dappled gloom she dipped,— An iridescent ...
— Enamels and Cameos and other Poems • Theophile Gautier

... me with confidence, they always address me with affection and enquire after my welfare. If they ever happen to be heedless, I am always heedful. If they happen to sleep, I always remain wakeful. Like bees drenching the cells of the comb with honey, the Brahmanas, who are my instructors and rulers, always drench me with the nectar of knowledge—me that am always devoted to the path pointed out by the scriptures, that am devoted to the Brahmanas, and that am perfectly free from malice or evil passion. Whatever ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... the fakir. It was not quite a nice job," he went on, in answer to Ned's astonished look, "but it's over now, and we need not say any more about it. The hair and rags are disgustingly filthy, there is no doubt about that. Their late owner never used a comb, and was otherwise beastly in his habits; still, old man, that cannot be helped, and if you like, when we once get out of the town, we can put them in water for twenty-four hours, or make a sort of oven, and bake them to get rid of their inhabitants. ...
— In Times of Peril • G. A. Henty

... both with it and the canal of the oesophagus, is a second receptacle, which old French naturalists, not being much acquainted with Greek, named the cap, on account of its fancied resemblance to the caps worn on the head, and which we call 'king's hood' or 'honey-comb bag.' This second stomach now contracts (at least so it is supposed), and thus retains, as if with a closed fist, a portion of the grass accumulated in the paunch: of this it forms a pellet, which it sends back ...
— The History of a Mouthful of Bread - And its effect on the organization of men and animals • Jean Mace

... is of course acquainted with the vigorous and bracing pages of Sir John (2 vols., London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown). Sir John, who plays but a tooth-comb in the orchestra of this historical romance, blows in his own book the big bassoon. His character is there drawn at large; and the sympathy of Landor has countersigned the admiration of the public. One point, however, calls for explanation; the chapter on Grunewald was torn ...
— Prince Otto • Robert Louis Stevenson

... respects to James I, soon after his accession to the crown of England. She mentions in her memoir, that his royal drawing room was so very dirty, that after the levee she was obliged to recur to her comb for relief. In plain truth, James I and his ...
— The Stranger in France • John Carr

... an April mood, Jacqueline was capable of yet another caprice. "Berthe," she cried, even as the whim came, "one is tired after playing the goose, n'est-ce pas? Do you, then, rest—yes, yes, while I comb your hair." ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... not her childish charm however that made Miss Hetty gasp. It was the enormous bow, half covering her head, and the butterfly comb that caught back her curls. The ribbon seemed larger than the silk frock buoyant with many skirts and quite abbreviated, while the little high-heeled shoes seemed designed for ...
— Pearl and Periwinkle • Anna Graetz

... finished the food, and licked the platters clean, they were presented with several bright brass buttons, an old clasp-knife, a comb, and a kerchief or two, with which inestimable gifts they embarked in their canoe, and returned to ...
— The Crew of the Water Wagtail • R.M. Ballantyne

... satisfied. She takes one of the beaux by the arm, and 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 to shave off both his ears. The lay-brother thinks, ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... in his chair, he felt something in the way. It was a small teddy-bear and half of a strong white comb. He grinned to himself. This was the summary of his domestic life—a broken, coarse comb, a child crying because her hair was lugged, a wife who had let the hair go till now, when she had got into a temper to see the job through; ...
— The Trespasser • D.H. Lawrence

... town with a fine-tooth comb and cleaned out all the suspicious characters the very first day we ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915 • Various

... hid them among the rocks. Slapjack left the others here and rode southward down the Dry Creek Trail towards town, while the partners shifted part of the weight from the overloaded pack- mules to the remaining saddle-animals and continued eastward along the barren comb of hills on foot, leading the ...
— The Spoilers • Rex Beach

... cold already," said Ellen. "It's the coldest water I ever saw. Mamma gave me a nice dressing-box before I came away, but I found very soon this was a queer place for a dressing-box to come to. Why, Miss Alice, if I take out my brush or comb I haven't any table to lay them on but one that's too high, and my poor dressing-box has to stay on the floor. And I haven't a sign of a bureau; all my things are tumbling ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner

... English forts and hills. But it was impossible for him to recover the simplicity and narrowness of conception in which he had executed the drawing of the Southern Coast, or to regain the innocence of delight with which he had once assisted gravely at the drying of clothes over the limekiln at Comb Martin, or penciled the woodland outlines of the banks of Dartmouth Cove. In certain fits of prosaic humorism, he would, as we have seen, condemn himself to delineation of the parades of a watering-place; but the moment he permitted himself to be enthusiastic, ...
— The Harbours of England • John Ruskin

... mortality, yet cannot I elicit a groan or a moral reflection. If you told me the world will be at an end to-morrow, I should just say, 'Will it?' I have not volition enough left to dot my i's, much less to comb my eyebrows; my eyes are set in my head; my brains are gone out to see a poor relation in Moorflelds, and they did not say when they'd come back again; my skull is a Grub Street attic to let—not so much as a joint stool left in ...
— Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries) • Various

... over one hundred miles to where I had left the sheep, which were still continuing their journey. It was a most enjoyable ride with only one drawback. The Indian's blankets and mine being together, I had gathered a lively community in my head. Procuring a small tooth-comb at a way-side place, I commenced operations, with the result that soon I had quite a colony on a newspaper in front of me. With the aid of tobacco water, I finally succeeded ...
— Reminiscences of Queensland - 1862-1869 • William Henry Corfield

... Don't be absurd! Your comb's falling into the sugar basin, and I shouldn't think it would improve the taste of the coffee. Look out! Help! Saved! Mary dear, why don't you ...
— Bird of Paradise • Ada Leverson

... She loosed the comb that held the shining strands, And threaded out the meshes with her hands. The purple mass fell to her garment's hem. A queen new clothed without her diadem She ...
— Poems of Cheer • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... the closed door; then warily stooped and picked up something lying on the veranda at his feet. It was a gold comb. ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... way back to the library and presented his belated respects to Madam, who sat enthroned in state where she could command the field and direct the manoeuvers. She was resplendent in black velvet and old lace. A glittering comb topped her high white pompadour, and a dog-collar of diamonds encircled ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice

... were rough and white, they were spotless as the hands that shook out and then twisted high the fine dusky masses of hair. When a fold had been drawn over either ear, in the modest fashion of the California maid and wife, and the tall shell comb had fastened the rest, Concha instead of finishing the headdress with her long Spanish pins, divested the stems of two half-blown roses of their thorns and thrust them obliquely through the knot. Her dress was of simple white linen made with a very full skirt ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton

... characteristic nose—it was a combative nose, and a decided pug. So was the nose on the window-pane. Plunger's hair, too, was peculiar to Plunger. It was wiry, stubborn hair, with a tuft in front which resembled the comb of a turkey-cock. The same peculiarity was seen in the head on the window. And Plunger's eyebrows had a way of mounting to his head, as though they were anxious to get on terms of friendship with the tuft above. The same eccentricity was ...
— The Hero of Garside School • J. Harwood Panting

... who thinks himself a wit, Perks up, and managing his comb with grace, With his white wig ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... Fr. bourguignote, Burgundian helmet), a form of light helmet or head-piece, which was in vogue in the 16th and 17th centuries. In its normal form the burgonet was a large roomy cap with a brim shading the eyes, cheek-pieces or flaps, a comb, and a guard for the back of the neck. In many cases a vizor, or other face protection, and a chin-piece are found in addition, so that this piece of armour is sometimes mistaken for an armet (q.v.), but it can always be distinguished by the projecting brim in front. ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various

... painful process and is performed with a brier, a flint arrowhead, a rattlesnake's tooth, or even with a piece of glass, according to the nature of the ailment, while in preparing the young men for the ball play the shaman uses an instrument somewhat resembling a comb, having seven teeth made from the sharpened splinters of the leg bone of a turkey. The scratching is usually done according to a particular pattern, the regular method for the ball play being to draw the scratcher four times down the upper part of each arm, thus making twenty-eight scratches ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney

... old. The smartly cut, long swallow-tail black coat, profusely braided with red and yellow, is worn over a snowy white cloth wrapped round the waist and reaching to the feet, and the smooth hair is kept in its place by a large circular comb at the top of the head. Out of doors, a gracefully carried umbrella is the ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

... as the average body types existing in the presence of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.[4] But we never find a functional female (which lays eggs) with all the typical characteristics of the male body. Body variation ...
— Taboo and Genetics • Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard

... before you became elastic. Now it is impossible to comb it straight; each hair springs back like a ...
— Common Science • Carleton W. Washburne

... certain persons who have appeared before the public under such names as the "human magnet," the "electric lady," etc. There is no doubt that some persons are supercharged with magnetism and electricity. For instance, it is quite possible for many persons by drawing a rubber comb through the hair to produce a crackling noise, and even produce sparks in the dark. Some exhibitionists have been genuine curiosities of this sort, while others by skilfully arranged electric apparatus are enabled to perform ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... man I had ever seen. The looks of the company are past my power to describe, being such as to make me feel as if I had broke into Bedlam. Their faces were all red and blotched with drink, and their heads covered with extravagant ringlets, which might never have seen a comb, while their dress was disordered to indecency, and the whole table was covered with a confusion of tankards and bottles and tobacco-pipes, not to mention playing-cards and dice. The huge man at their head bore a most terrifying aspect. ...
— Athelstane Ford • Allen Upward

... shortly afterwards the geese were found all dead or dying, with many of their necks wrung, at which Asmund was mightily vexed. Again, one evening, being cold, he asked the boy to warm him by rubbing his back, but Grettir, taking up a wool-carder's comb, dropped it down his father's back. The old man was furiously angry, and would have beaten Grettir, had he not run away, while Asdis, though vexed, tried her best to make ...
— The Book of Romance • Various

... broken comb, which he used upon Snip's hair as well as his own, Seth concluded his toilet, and, neither the little woman nor the girl having returned to the house, stood in the doorway gazing out upon as peaceful a scene as a boy pursued by the officers ...
— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis

... produced literature, 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 Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... the carefully planned and horribly expensive decorations, which would be eminently calculated to form a suitable background for herself. The flowers and candle-shades were to be yellow, and she was to wear her yellow chiffon gown, with touches of gold embroidery, a gold comb set with topazes in her yellow hair, and on her breast a large, gleaming stone which was a yellow diamond of very considerable value. Wilbur had carried in his suit case her yellow satin slippers, her gold-beaded fan, and the queer little wrap ...
— The Butterfly House • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... and winter, hung the roller towel, and near by the mirror and family horn comb. In the dark the mirror was of doubtful use, but with a few well-directed strokes of the comb he managed to get a semblance, at least, of neatness to his hair. He shivered a little as he finished—just as his uncle appeared, milk pails and lantern ...
— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson

... fascination and ours was complete when Virginie appeared. Nothing could be less artificial than her costume; the simple dress of Bengalese blue cloth, a few cowrie shells round her neck, and a shell comb fastening up the braids of profusion of raven hair. She came floating rather than walking down the mountain path; and her first few words, when Paul rushed forward and knelt to kiss her feet, and the half playful, half fond air with which she repelled him, seemed to me the most exquisite ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various

... depriving him of his see. For fury the duke of Aquitaine sometimes substituted insolent mockery. Another bishop, of Angouleme, who was quite bald, likewise exhorted him to mend his ways. "I will mend," quoth the duke, "when thou shalt comb back thy hair to thy pate." Another great lord of the same century, Foulques the Black, count of Anjou, at the close of an able and glorious lifetime, had resigned to his son Geoffrey Martel the administration of his countship. The son, as haughty and harsh towards his ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume I. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... said, Napoleon, to use a common expression, was "cornered." He pretended to be much surprised, and very angry; promised "to comb Fouch's head," and even added that if she desired he would take away his portfolio; and to calm her he went so far as to write to the Minister of Police this letter, dated Fontainebleau, ...
— The Court of the Empress Josephine • Imbert de Saint-Amand

... more than the blackamoor can become white, or the leopard change his spots; but she is no longer revolting. She has left off chewing and smoking, having found a refuge in snuff. Her hair is permitted to grow, and is already turned up with a comb, though constantly concealed beneath a cap. The heart of Jack, alone, seems unaltered. The strange, tiger-like affection that she bore for Spike, during twenty years of abandonment, has disappeared in regrets for his end. It is succeeded by a most sincere ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... he was a perfect honey-comb, overflowing with kindness and affection, expressed in such a profusion of warm and sugary words, that it was next to an ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton

... and went on arranging her hair without speaking. Something seemed to disturb her mind. She bit her lip, and threw down the brush and comb violently. In the clear depths of the little square of looking-glass a face looked into hers, whose eyes were perturbed as if with the shadows of some coming inward storm; the black brows were knit, and ...
— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... on them, and then lulling them to sleep. She would sustain the loud parts, then linger over the melody; there were movements that she would play with tenderness and others with little bursts of passion. She bent over the piano, then rose again, the light playing on the top of her tortoise-shell comb one moment, while the next moment it could scarcely be seen in her black hair. The two candles on the piano flickered to the noise, throwing a light over her profile or sending their flame over her forehead, her cheeks, and her chin. The shadow from her ear-rings—two coral balls—trembled ...
— Rene Mauperin • Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt

... school that afternoon; and a little negotiation, after school was dismissed, settled the business—the coveted dog-collar was his! Indeed, so craftily did he conduct the bargain, that he made the other boy throw in a pretty ivory pocket-comb to boot! The little boy who was thus cruelly deceived, supposed he was buying the ring that Oscar usually wore; and, in truth, Oscar did give him to understand, in the course of the barter, that it was fine gold, a point on which the other boy ...
— Oscar - The Boy Who Had His Own Way • Walter Aimwell

... and so off he started One morning, his fortune to seek, Comb and fiddle his all, yet light-hearted As long as his fiddle could squeak, Be it ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... imagine nothing viler than those holes, full of smoke, cob-webs hanging on the black beams, those old sworders and young men drinking, shouting, and beating the tables like crazy people; and behind, in the shadow, old Annette Schnaps or Marie Hering—her old wig stuck back on her head, her comb with only three teeth remaining, crosswise, in it—gazing on the scene, or emptying a mug to the health ...
— The Conscript - A Story of the French war of 1813 • Emile Erckmann

... drove on the geese, and sat down again in the meadow, and began to comb out her hair as before, and Conrad ran up to her, and wanted to take hold of it. The princess repeated the words she had used the day before, when the wind came and blew away his hat, and off it flew a great way, over the hills and far away, so that he had to run after it. When he returned, ...
— Folk-lore and Legends: German • Anonymous

... into a hurry of movement that left us no time for reasoning or argument. Semyonov appeared and in Molozov's absence took the lead. He was, of course, entirely unmoved, and as I now remember, combed his fair beard with a little tortoiseshell pocket comb as he talked to us. "Yes, we must move in half an hour. Very sad ... the whole army ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole

... her home, where the drunken rollers comb, And the shouting seas drive by, And the engines stamp and ring, and the wet bows reel and swing, And the Southern Cross rides high! Yes, the old lost stars wheel back, dear lass, That blaze in ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby

... always much mysterious report about the new material. Dionysius Periegetes tells of a barbarous people called the Seres, who "renounce the care of sheep and oxen, but who comb the coloured flowers of the desert, and with them produce woven precious stuffs, of which they make figured garments, resembling the flowers of the field in beauty, and in texture the ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford

... changed the light, sometimes bringing his face under the full radiance of the sunshine, sometimes receiving it at different angles or shading himself slightly with his hand. At last, sighing heavily, he stepped back, laid the tortoise-shell comb and ivory brush on the marble washstand, sank into the arm-chair standing in the corner, and bowed his head on his breast, while his arms hung at full length ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau

... insanity—they hold me incapable of reason, and declare their ideas of what that is, by asking who knows most of the dairy, the cabbage-patch, the spinning-wheel, the darning-needle—who can best wash Polly's or Patty's face and comb its head—can chop up sausage-meat the finest—make the lightest paste, and more economically dispense the sugar in serving up the tea! and these are what is expected of woman! These duties of the meanest slave! From ...
— Charlemont • W. Gilmore Simms



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



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