Word.ws English Dictionary

toothcomb

Syllables: tooth·comb/ˈtuːθkəʊm//ˈtuθˌkoʊm/

toothcomb noun: a comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search.

toothcomb: a comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search
Image: Alex Dunkel ( Maky ), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

toothcomb (plural toothcombs)

  1. (figuratively, proscribed, sometimes) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search.
    • The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.
    • [advertisement] [A] quantity of Pencil Cases, Fans, Tooth-combs, and Nail-brushes, a Pier-glass, and various other very useful articles.1828 April 19, The Hobart Town Courier, Hobart, Tasmania, page 3, column 2

Verb

toothcomb (third-person singular simple present toothcombs, present participle toothcombing, simple past and past participle toothcombed)

  1. (UK, proscribed, rare, sometimes, transitive) To use a toothcomb on (something).
    • 8.15 am. Tooth-combed seven heads, had grand sport; mixed bag, measured one teaspoonful; cleanliness is next to godliness!2013, Judith Lissauer Cromwell, “Nursing”, in Florence Nightingale, Feminist, Jefferson, N.C.; London: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 234
  2. (UK, figuratively, proscribed, sometimes, transitive) To search (something) thoroughly.
    • The flat was toothcombed for any trace of drugs.
    • A number of locals, including Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall, were already assisting the police in the careful toothcombing of the surrounding scrub.1967, Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, London: Vintage Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 50

Noun (2)

toothcomb (plural toothcombs)

  1. (UK, proscribed, sometimes, transitive) A comb-like dental structure found in the lower jaws of certain primates consisting of long, flat front teeth with microscopic grooves, which are used for grooming fur.
    • There is no reason to doubt that the tooth comb is homologous in all the lemuriforms. The term tooth comb has recently been replaced by Martin (1972) with the concept of "tooth scraper," and he has stated that, although most living species of strepsirhines use their tooth combs for grooming, this...1979, Frederick S. Szalay, Eric Delson, “Suborder Strepsirhini”, in Evolutionary History of the Primates, New York, N.Y.; London: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 103, column 1
    • Anthropoids are characterized by having short faces, dry noses, and lacking prominent whiskers. [...] There is no toothcomb or sublingua, and the number of teeth varies from 36 in some platyrrhines to 32 in the catarrhines.1995, Robert A. Whitney, “Taxonomy”, in B. Taylor Bennett, Christian R. Abee, Roy Henrickson, editors, Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research: Biology and Management, San Diego, Calif.; London...

Examples of toothcomb in a sentence

  • Racks, shears and toothcombs here, sit down: / With such a shaggy, shockdog crown / Who but some rustic, clodpoll clown / Would think of venturing into town?1853 January 14, James Henry, Notes of a Twelve Years’ Voyage of Discovery in the First Six Books of the Eneis, Dresden: Meinhold and Sons...
  • I never had nothing in my head since I was born, and I always use the toothcomb.1868 March 1, Matthew Browne, “A Working Man’s Courtship”, in Norman McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume IX, London: Strahan and Co., […]...
  • Word was passed to the Customs authorities, and every soul that left the ship was gone over with a toothcomb!1924 March, Agatha Christie, “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery”, in Poirot Investigates, facsimile edition, London: HarperCollinsPublishers...
  • I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on.1957, Ian Fleming, “The Tunnel of Rats”, in From Russia, with Love, London: Vintage Books, published 2012, →ISBN, part 2 (The Execution)...

Forms of toothcomb

Noun
pluraltoothcombs
alternative formtooth comb
alternative formtooth-comb
Verb
third-person singular presenttoothcombs
present participletoothcombing
past participletoothcombed
pasttoothcombed

Origin of toothcomb

The noun is derived from fine toothcomb, a rebracketing of fine-tooth comb. The verb is derived from the noun.

From tooth + comb.

Phrases with toothcomb

Questions about toothcomb

What does toothcomb mean?
Toothcomb means a comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search.
How do you use toothcomb in a sentence?
Racks, shears and toothcombs here, sit down: / With such a shaggy, shockdog crown / Who but some rustic, clodpoll clown / Would think of venturing into town?
What part of speech is toothcomb?
Toothcomb can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce toothcomb?
Toothcomb is pronounced /ˈtuːθkəʊm/ (UK).
What is the plural of toothcomb?
The plural of toothcomb is toothcombs.

Words near toothcomb in the dictionary

  1. toothbrushless
  2. toothbrushy
  3. toothcare
  4. toothcarp
  5. toothcarps
  6. toothcomb
  7. toothcombed
  8. toothcombing
  9. toothcombings
  10. toothcombs
  11. Toothdale

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toothcomb (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-toothcomb.wav, En-us-toothcomb.ogg.

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