▪ I. combing, vbl. n.
(ˈkəʊmɪŋ)
[f. comb v.1]
1. The action of the verb comb.
| 1575 Fenton Gold. Epist. (1577) 139 To haue their haires fall without combing. 1606 Surfl. Country Farm 51 Of spinning and combing of wooll. 1854 E. Wilson Healthy Skin xvii, By plenty of combing and brushing. |
2. concr. (usually pl.) The produce of combing; hairs combed off; the artificial borders, etc. for which these are saved.
| 1656 Artif. Handsom. 44 The baldnesse, thinnesse, and..deformity of their haire, is usually supplyed by borders and combings. Ibid. 59 She laid out the combings or cuttings of her own or others more youthfull haire. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. vi. 145, I desired the queen's woman to save for me the combings of her majesty's hair. 1880 W. S. Gilbert Patience, Compelled at last, in life's uncertain gloamings, To wreathe her wrinkled brow with well saved ‘combings’. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as combing (i.e. wool-combing) trade; † combing-cloth, -kerchief, a cloth placed over the shoulders while the hair is combed; combing-machine, a machine for combing wool; combing plate (see quots.); combing skin, a long-woolled skin; a skin bearing long wool suitable for combing; combing-wool, long wool adapted for combing and spinning into worsted.
| 1578 in T. Thomson Inventories (1815) 231 (Jam.) Huidis, quaffis..naipkynis, camyng claithis. Ibid. 235 (Jam.) Ane camyng curche of the same. 1670–98 R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 41 Some of the townsmen who saw him putting on that combing-cloth..thinking it had been a priest putting on the amice. 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4585/4 Places..where the Combing Trade is followed. 1757 Dyer Fleece ii. Argt., The wool of our island peculiarly excellent is the combing wool. 1882 Pall Mall G. 20 June 5/2 The better grades of combing merino. 1883 Leisure Hour 243/2 ‘Combing’ wool is longer, finer, and more silky than ‘clothing’. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 521/1 Fig. 1... Grinding surface of a..molar of Rhinoceros..12, crochet (posterior combing plate). Ibid. 521/2 The middle sinus is often intersected by vertical laminæ (‘combing plates’) projecting into it. 1895 Daily News 10 May 9/3 Good combing skins show 1/8 to 1/4d. per lb. advance; short-woolled skins rule about on a par with..last auction values. |
▪ II. combing, ppl. a.1
(ˈkəʊmɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That combs; esp. of a wave: Forming a crest, breaking into foam (see comb v.1 5).
| 1857 S. Osborne Quedah xviii. 246 The spirit of the old pirate is still observed in stormy nights..to row his tiny skiff through the combing waves. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Combing sea, a rolling and crested wave. |
▪ III. † combing, ppl. a.2 Obs.
In form a pres. pple. of a v. comb, of uncertain meaning and history. Perhaps related to Pr. comb, Sp. combo curved, combar to curve (see Littré s.v. Combe); with sense: Curving, incurved, bending in.
| 1502 Arnolde Chron. 62 To graff frute that shal haue no core. Take a graff and bowe it in both endes combyng, and kyt bothe endes graf wyse and so fasten them in the stoke. 1574 T. Hill Planting ii. 75. |
▪ IV. combing
var. of coaming.