Word.ws English Dictionary

fine-toothed comb

fine-toothed comb is the alternative form of fine-tooth comb.

Meaning of fine-tooth comb

Noun

fine-tooth comb (plural fine-tooth combs)

  1. A comb with fine, closely spaced teeth, especially one used for removing head lice and their nits (eggs) from the hair; a nit comb.
    • The practice of combing the heads of children too frequently with a fine tooth comb is a bad one, as the points of the teeth are quite sure to scratch and irritate the scalp, and are almost sure to produce scurf or dandruff.1858, Lola Montez, The Arts of Beauty, Chapter 21
    Synonyms:
    toothcomb
  2. (figuratively) A means of making a thorough search.
    • The police went through his possessions with a fine-tooth comb.
    Synonyms:
    toothcomb

See all 4 meanings of fine-tooth comb

Forms of fine-toothed comb

pluralfine-toothed combs

Questions about fine-toothed comb

What is fine-toothed comb the alternative form of?
Fine-toothed comb is the alternative form of fine-tooth comb.

Words near fine-toothed comb in the dictionary

  1. fine-tooth comb tests
  2. fine-tooth combed
  3. fine-tooth combing
  4. fine-tooth combs
  5. fine-toothed
  6. fine-toothed comb
  7. fine-toothed combs
  8. fine-tune
  9. fine-tuned
  10. fine-tuned universe
  11. fine-tuned universes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fine-toothed comb (page history and authors); fine-tooth comb (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.

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