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tooth-comb. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Noun
tooth-comb (plural tooth-combs)
- Alternative form of toothcomb
1850, Al Hariri of Basra, “The Makamah of Damietta. The Words of Hareth ibn-Hammam.”, in Theodore Preston, transl., Makamat: Or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al Hariri of Basra , London: Wm H Allen & Co., ; Paris: B. Duprat, →OCLC, footnote 4, page 374:When the Arabs speak of things as alike in respect of good qualities, they call them 'as like as the teeth of a tooth-comb;' whereas, if they speak of similarity in bad qualities, they say 'as like as the teeth of an ass.'
1854, Octavius Freire Owen, “The Degenerate Bees”, in John Gay, The Fables of John Gay Illustrated. , London: George Routledge & Co. , →OCLC, footnote 2, page 228:Thin-skinned dunces, too, in power, hate satire, to use Sidney [i.e., Sydney] Smith's simile, for the same reason as "fleas detest tooth-combs," because they cannot escape it.
2015, Susan Cachel, “The Eocene Primate Radiation”, in Fossil Primates (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 152:Must interest has centered on the first appearance of the prosimian tooth-comb or tooth-scraper [...]. The tooth-comb is formed by lower incisors and canines that are elongated and slender, and that form a procumbent unit in the anterior mandible. Upper incisors are lost, reduced, or moved to accommodate the tooth-comb.
Verb
tooth-comb (third-person singular simple present tooth-combs, present participle tooth-combing, simple past and past participle tooth-combed)
- Alternative form of toothcomb
2013, Judith Lissauer Cromwell, “Nursing”, in Florence Nightingale, Feminist, Jefferson, N.C., London: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 234:8.15 am. Tooth-combed seven heads, had grand sport; mixed bag, measured one teaspoonful; cleanliness is next to godliness!