What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

What is the difference between comb and brush?

comb | brush |

As nouns the difference between comb and brush

is that comb is a toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place while brush is an implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.

As verbs the difference between comb and brush

is that comb is to groom with a toothed implement; chiefly with a comb while brush is to clean with a brush.

comb

English

(Wikipedia)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.
  • *
  • *:There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;.
  • A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
  • A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
  • A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
  • An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
  • *1882 , James Edwin (Thorold Rogers), , Vol.4, p.207:
  • *:But the comb or half quarter is very general in the Eastern counties, particularly in Norfolk.
  • The top part of a gun’s stock.
  • The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
  • (music) The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
  • A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
  • A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
  • The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
  • The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
  • One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions.
  • The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
  • A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
  • (weaving) A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
  • Synonyms

    * (skin on head of birds) cockscomb, crest

    Coordinate terms

    * (skin on head of birds) caruncle, snood, wattle

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from "comb") * backcomb * comb-footed spider * comb jelly * combover * currycomb * drop at comb * fine-tooth comb * razor comb * Venus' comb

    Coordinate terms

    * orling

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (especially of hair or fur) To groom with a toothed implement; chiefly with a .
  • To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
  • To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.
  • (nautical) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (abbreviation) Combination.
  • Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    brush

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.
  • A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
  • The act of brushing something.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:[As leaves] have with one winter's brush / Fell from their boughs.
  • (lb) Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees ().
  • *1906 , Jack London, :
  • *:We broke away]] toward the north, the tribe howling on our track. Across the open spaces we gained, and in the brush they [[catch up, caught up with us, and more than once it was nip and tuck.
  • *{{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black)
  • , chapter=2, title= Internal Combustion , passage=One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually.}}
  • A short and sometimes occasional encounter or experience.
  • :
  • *2013 , Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems''', ''The Guardian , 13 September:
  • *:The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.
  • The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • (lb) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
  • (lb) A short contest, or trial, of speed.
  • *Cornhill Magazine
  • *:Let us enjoy a brush across the country.
  • (lb) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
  • (lb) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
  • *2007 , Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques , p.12:
  • *:Your bitmap image appears along the painted stroke. If you'd like to permanently create a custom sprite brush , it's fairly easy to adapt an existing MEL file.
  • (lb) In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
  • The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
  • (North Wisconsin, uncountable) Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in wreathmaking.
  • Verb

  • To clean with a brush.
  • Brush your teeth.
  • To untangle or arrange with a brush.
  • Brush your hair.
  • To apply with a brush.
  • Brush the paint onto the walls.
  • To remove with a sweeping motion.
  • Brush the flour off your clothes.
  • * Shakespeare
  • As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed / With raven's feather from unwholesome fen.
  • To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.
  • Her scarf brushed his skin.
  • * Fairfax
  • Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep / The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave.
  • * Milton
  • Brushed with the kiss of rustling wings.
  • * 1990 October 28, , Warner Bros.
  • Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh.

    Derived terms

    * as daft as a brush * bottle brush, bottlebrush * bristle brush * broad brush * brush aside * brush back, brushback * brush by * brush cut * brush down * brushed * brushless * brushmaker * brush off * brushfire * brush-off * brushtail * brushy * clothesbrush, clothes brush * hairbrush * live over the brush * paintbrush * paint with a broad brush * scrub brush, scrubbing brush * shaving brush * shoe brush * toothbrush * underbrush * wire brush

    See also

    * broom * comb

    Anagrams

    * shrub 1000 English basic words