Dictionary

comb-out en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɐʉ̯mˌæʊ̯t/ (New-Zealand)
• kōm′out′
• /ˈkəʊ̯mˌaʊ̯t/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈkomˌʌʊ̯t/ (Scotland)
• /ˈkəʉ̯mˌæɔ̯t/ (Australia)
• /ˈkoːmˌawʈ/ (India)
• /ˈkoʊ̯mˌaʊ̯t/ (Canada, General-American)

Etymology

Deverbal from comb out. First attested in 1915–1920 (sense 1 and sense 2). First attested in 1940 (sense 3).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) An act of combing out hair.
2. (countable, idiomatic, informal, uncountable) The identification and removal of someone or something.
3. (countable, idiomatic, slang, uncountable) The act of sorting out.
   • McCann and I took ten men each and made a systematic comb-out of the Gardens. Every sniper we found we shot out of hand. 1940, Operator 1384, McCann the Spy, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, page 263:
   • […]we were stopped by ten police mobile[…]this was one of the periodic comb-outs of streets in which the police hoped to catch criminals unawares. 1969 [1933], A. R. Cooper, Born to Fight, London, page 224:
   • I’d like to see a good comb-out up there, to catch out these sort of people. 1943, Celia Fremlin, “Background: The Town and The Newcomers”, in Harrisson, Tom, editor, Mass-Observation War Factory: A Report, quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Vintage/Ebury, published 1987, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 16, lines 15–16:

Forms

Synonyms

teasing