Word.ws English Dictionary

kemb

/ˈkɛm/

kemb is the obsolete form of comb.

Meaning of comb

Verb

comb (third-person singular simple present combs, present participle combing, simple past and past participle combed)

  1. (transitive) Especially of hair or fur, to groom with a toothed implement, especially a comb.
    • I like the way you comb your hair / And I like those stylish clothes you wear / It's just the little things you do / That show how much you really care1982, Debarge, “I Like It (DeBarge song)”, in All This Love (album)
  2. (transitive) To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
  3. (transitive) To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.
    • Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.
  4. (intransitive) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
  5. (transitive) To turn a vessel parallel to (the track of) (a torpedo) so as to reduce one's size as a target.
    • The aircraft split up so as to attack from different, preselected bearings, thus confusing the gunners and making it difficult for the ship to comb torpedo tracks.2010, Jim Crossley, Bismarck: The Epic Chase

See all 25 meanings of comb

Forms of kemb

Verb
third-person singular presentkembs
present participlekembing
past participlekembed
pastkembed
past participlekempt
pastkempt
Noun
pluralkembs

Origin of kemb

From Middle English kemben, from Old English cemban, from Proto-West Germanic *kambijan, from Proto-Germanic *kambijaną (“to comb”). Cognate with Dutch kemmen (“to comb”), German kämmen (“to comb”), Danish kæmme (“to comb”), Icelandic kemba (“to comb; card; debug”).

Words formed from kemb

Words that rhyme with kemb

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about kemb

What is kemb the obsolete form of?
Kemb is the obsolete form of comb.
How do you pronounce kemb?
Kemb is pronounced /ˈkɛm/.

Words near kemb in the dictionary

  1. kemanak
  2. kemancha
  3. kemanchas
  4. Kemar
  5. kemari
  6. kemb
  7. Kemball
  8. kembed
  9. kemben
  10. kembens
  11. kembing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kemb (page history and authors); 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: “kemb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kemb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.