combo slang.
(ˈkɒmbəʊ)
[f. combination + -o.]
1. Combination, partnership (in various senses). U.S.
| 1929 Dunning & Abbott Broadway iii. 113 [of two dancers] We'd make about the best combo I could imagine. 1931 Amer. Speech VII. 105 Combo, the combination of safe or vault. 1959 in Ibid. (1962) XXXVII. 79 In describing the first poetry–jazz concert at Nebraska University a newspaper reporter referred to the reading of poetry to a jazz accompaniment as a combo. Ibid., Potluck Supper on Slate? Take chicken-rice combo. 1963 Ibid. XXXVIII. 156 Recently, I heard a television commercial in which a woman shopper in a supermarket was heard to exclaim enthusiastically, ‘Me and Tide—some combo!’ 1963 R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. xi. 717 Specially made tools to..pull the combo [in safe-breaking]. |
2. A white man who lives with an Aboriginal woman. Also ˈcomboman. Austral.
| 1926 K. S. Prichard Working Bullocks v. 47 Combo's what they call a man tracks round with a gin in the nor'⁓west. 1934 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 May 377/3 ‘Comboman’ is the name given in Central Australia to a white man who associates with aboriginal women. 1939 X. Herbert Capricornia ii. 13 They considered the men who sought the love of lubras—such men were called Comboes—unspeakably low. 1944 W. E. Harney Taboo (ed. 2) 59 Detribalized—the word makes me sick... Perhaps it is because I am an old ‘combo’, a man whose sympathy for these people goes down deeper than the paltry money that can be gained from their toil. |
3. A small instrumental band; = combination 4 d. orig. U.S.
| 1935 Metronome (N.Y.) May 28/3 As a soft fiddle–sax combo, it clicks. 1958 Steinbeck Once there was a War (1959) p. xix, One of the finest jazz combos I ever heard. 1958 New Statesman 23 Aug. 221/1 Mr Buck Clayton..feels that the original ideas and speed of decision required by the small ‘combo’ make for more interesting playing. 1970 N.Y. Times 27 July 20/1 The Conspiracy is a chatty three-guitar combo that sings songs and makes jokes. |