Dictionary

horse-comb en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhɔɹsˌkoʊm/ (General-American)
• /ˈhɔːsˌkəʊm/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Middle English horscomb, horsecombe, horskame, horskambe, from Old English horscamb (“horse-comb, curry-comb”), equivalent to horse + comb.

Meanings

1. A comb used by horse groomers for combing the mane and tail of horses.
2. A curry comb (comb used for brushing a horse's coat)
   • A Horſe-comb. Strigilis. 1675, Christopher Wase, Dictionarium Minus, A Compendious Dictionary English-Latin and Latin-English […] , 2nd edition, page 599:
   • In the reign of Henry V, the service seems to have been changed to the annual delivery of a “horse comb, value four-pence.” 1837, “Driving to Cover:-Portrait of J. S. W. S. Erle Drax, Esq. Charborough Park, Dorsetshire.”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume 13, number 79, page 262:
   • After six weeks in Belgium he arrived in England with only two possessions: an aluminium horse comb and a handkerchief. 2003, Pamela Howe Taylor, The Germans We Trusted: Stories of Friendship Resulting from the Second World War, →ISBN, page 34:

Forms