Word.ws English Dictionary

backcomb

backcomb verb: to hold the hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look.

backcomb: to hold the hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look
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Verb

backcomb (third-person singular simple present backcombs, present participle backcombing, simple past and past participle backcombed)

  1. (transitive) To hold the hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look.
    • Her dark-blonde hair, worn long at Oxford, had been cut and backcombed, Diana-style, and quivered when she shook her head.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    tease

Noun

backcomb (plural backcombs)

  1. The hairstyle produced by backcombing.
    • You and your fit friends anyway / I'd take them all out any day / They all got backcombs anyway2012, “Sex”, performed by The 1975
  2. (dated) A decorative comb worn as an ornament and to secure a hairstyle.
    • There was a part of a bottle of liquor on the table—the furniture of the hall was disarranged—a pair of slippers, two small combs, and a backcomb were lying near an easy chair.1876, Lex, Remarkable Criminal Trials in Bengal
    • A backcomb comprising a pair of oppositely disposed members of sheet material each provided with teeth along one margin, a pivot pin securing the members at one end in overlapping relation.1912, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, volume 39, issues 1-6, page 252

Synonyms of backcomb

Forms of backcomb

Verb
third-person singular presentbackcombs
present participlebackcombing
past participlebackcombed
pastbackcombed
alternative formback-comb
Noun
pluralbackcombs

Origin of backcomb

From back + comb.

Questions about backcomb

What does backcomb mean?
Backcomb means to hold the hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look.
What part of speech is backcomb?
Backcomb can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of backcomb?
The past tense of backcomb is backcombed.

Words near backcomb in the dictionary

  1. backchecking
  2. backchecks
  3. backclash
  4. backcloth
  5. backcloths
  6. backcomb
  7. backcombed
  8. backcombing
  9. backcombs
  10. backcountries
  11. backcountry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backcomb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “backcomb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backcomb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.