noun

• 1A comb with narrow teeth that are close together.

  ‘Comb gel through with a fine-toothed comb and let hair dry naturally.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Nit combs are fine-toothed combs which can remove the tiny eggs laid by lice.’
  • ‘The simplest nonchemical lice cure is mechanical: Manually remove lice by combing the hair of the infested child with a fine-toothed comb.’
  • ‘The National Pediculosis Association recommends removal of lice with a fine-toothed comb rather than using chemical preparations.’
  • ‘The princess was presently bringing an ivory fine-toothed comb through her long hair as she looked at her refection in the mirror.’
  • ‘Roxie chirped, running a fine-toothed comb through her silky blonde hair.’
  • ‘Honey bees, when plagued by tiny tracheal mites, will use their legs like a fine-tooth comb to rid themselves of the life-threatening parasites.’
  • ‘A fine-tooth comb also works very well, especially on cats.’

  1. 1.1in singular Used with reference to a very thorough search or analysis of something.
     See also toothcomb
     ‘they went through the house with a fine-tooth comb’
     More example sentences

     • ‘‘It's my fault for not going through it with a fine-tooth comb,’ Wells observed.’
     • ‘The planners' report goes over the city's Official Plan with a fine-tooth comb to discover numerous reasons why this kind of development is inappropriate for the neighbourhood and inconsistent with all the city's planning intentions.’
     • ‘The Department of Arts has gone through it with a fine-tooth comb and it is absolutely justified.’
     • ‘The thing was to discover what they wanted to write, and then go through each poem with a fine-tooth comb to try to help them improve it.’
     • ‘They'll go over it with a fine-tooth comb and find every area that looks unusual - burning, breakage, that kind of thing - to try to help determine what the primary cause was.’
     • ‘It might contain an underlying message that overrides careful analysis discoverable only by the few who go through it with a fine-tooth comb.’
     • ‘It just shows you, kids, don't ever sign a statement if you haven't been through it with a fine-tooth comb.’
     • ‘Tomorrow I shall go over all my outgoings with a fine-tooth comb, looking for other savings.’
     • ‘It's going to be examining every piece of software with a fine-tooth comb.’
     • ‘All of their marketing strategies for the coming year will have to be gone through with a fine-tooth comb, and most of them will have to be scrapped.’
     • ‘That's why you have to really go through your contract with a fine-tooth comb.’
     • ‘‘I've been through their manufacturing products with a fine-tooth comb, and they're not bad at all,’ he says.’
     • ‘He and I looked over the modem with a fine-tooth comb, and could find nothing that looked like a button.’
     • ‘‘We have thousands of contracts, all of which were set up at a different time and in a different way, so it meant going through each one with a fine-toothed comb,’ Nish says.’
     • ‘We will be going through the proposed plans with a fine-toothed comb to make the best we can of it, looking for ways to mitigate the impact of the road.’
     • ‘So I wrote to assure them that I had raked over every lyric with a fine-toothed comb, and that I was only doing songs that I felt I could do.’
     • ‘Lawyers are going through the proposals - in a document 70 or 80 pages long - with a fine-toothed comb.’