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/ˈtuːθkəʊm/ · noun
(British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search..
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.
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.
Use tooth comb when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Tooth comb means (British, chiefly figurative, sometimes proscribed) A comb with finely spaced teeth, chiefly as a metaphorical means of making a thorough search..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
The police went through all his possessions with a toothcomb.
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