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)
- 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)
- To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
- To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.
- Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.
- To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
- 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
Forms of kemb
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | kembs |
| present participle | kembing |
| past participle | kembed |
| past | kembed |
| past participle | kempt |
| past | kempt |
| Noun | |
| plural | kembs |
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
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
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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “kemb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kemb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
