Pronunciations (2)
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/ˈtuːθkəʊm/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈtuθˌkoʊm/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
Noun
A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search.
Usage- Figurative
- proscribed
- sometimes
- Examples
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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.
More examples (14)
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.'
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?
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.
Ah, Sir, you needn't look. I never had nothing in my head since I was born, and I always use the toothcomb.
Mr. John Oxley Parker exhibited the following miscellaneous objects found at Othona (Bradwell-juxta-Mare), [...] two pieces of Roman tooth combs, [...]
I wandered up and down the streets, vainly hoping to be struck by some brilliant inspiration that should select for me the sort of work to take in hand. I would be a crossing-sweeper, a shoeblack, a vendor of cherries, a seller of penny watches or tooth[-]combs.
Queer thing, isn't it, that all the pretty things that please one are all irretrievably wrong, and everything that sets one's teeth on edge, and scratches through one's brain like a metallic tooth comb, are all scientifically exquisite.
Gradually, as we became more wet, we grew more desperate, and before long floundered down as regardless of bumps as a bluebottle in a conservatory: at one moment slithering over wet slabs of rock to which damp tufts of moss were loosely adherent, at another climbing carefully over gigantic toothcombs of fallen trees, then plunging head foremost—sometimes not exactly head foremost—through jungle-like masses of long grass and dwarf brushwood.
The only instrument that will adequately meet the case is a general Consular warrant under which the police shall be able to make a house to house search, swooping down upon any premises which they have reason to suspect, and, metaphorically speaking, drawing the contents through a tooth[-]comb.
Word was passed to the Customs authorities, and every soul that left the ship was gone over with a toothcomb!
The Russians were suspicious as hell. I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on.
I want you to go through its staff with the finest toothcomb you can lay your hands on, and to miss out nothing, absolutely nothing.
Jeremy Purseglove went through the tables with a tooth comb, which helped no end with ecology and naming; [...]
I just want some assurance that HMRC [Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs] will go through the deal with a toothcomb to ensure that the taxpayer gets the proper benefit under the law of the tax that Vodafone should pay on the massive windfall profit that it is making.
Verb
To use a toothcomb on (something).
Usage- UK usage
- proscribed
- Rare
- sometimes
- Transitive
- Examples
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8.15 am. Tooth-combed seven heads, had grand sport; mixed bag, measured one teaspoonful; cleanliness is next to godliness!
To search (something) thoroughly.
Usage- UK usage
- Figurative
- proscribed
- sometimes
- Transitive
- Examples
-
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.
More examples (2)
He also had one of his employees toothcomb the journals for other mentions of 44-79731 and she was able to find several more entries, including a notation that it was picked up from the depot at Villacoublay by the 407ᵗʰ FA Gp. in October of 1944.
Curiously scouring, rummaging, searching … / Leaving no stone unturned. / Oddly seeking, hunting, sifting … / Shelves painstakingly toothcombed.
Noun
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.
Usage- UK usage
- proscribed
- sometimes
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (5)
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 is a secondary function.
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.
Members of the Prosimii, with the exception of Tarsius, have extremely specialized incisors. The lower incisors are tilted forward—they are then called procumbent—and are flattened laterally, forming a toothcomb. [...] The lower canine is frequently included in this toothcomb, and its morphology is assimilated to the shape of the procumbent incisors.
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.
Toothcombs have evolved independently in various mammalian lineages, including primates, scandentians, and dermopterans, but the presence of a six-toothed toothcomb composed of four lower incisors and two canines (I₁, I₂ and C₁, bilaterally) is a distinct feature of extant strepsirrhine primates [...].