fine-tooth comb

The noun is derived from fine (“particularly slender”) +‎ tooth (“sharp projection”) +‎ comb.^[1] The verb is derived from the noun.^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌfaɪntuːθ ˈkəʊm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfaɪnˌtuθ ˈkoʊm/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊm

fine-tooth comb (plural fine-tooth combs)

1. A comb with fine, closely spaced teeth, especially one used for removing head lice and their nits (eggs) from the hair; a nit comb.

   Synonym: toothcomb

   • 1858, Lola Montez, The Arts of Beauty, Chapter 21:

     The practice of combing the heads of children too frequently with a fine tooth comb is a bad one, as the points of the teeth are quite sure to scratch and irritate the scalp, and are almost sure to produce scurf or dandruff.

   • 1902, Hughie Cannon, “Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?”:

     'Member dat rainy eve dat I drove you out,
     Wid nothing but a fine tooth comb?

2. (figuratively) A means of making a thorough search.

   Synonym: toothcomb

   The police went through his possessions with a fine-tooth comb.

   • 1912, Franklin P. Adams, Of Course You Would:

     If you had to make some verses on the topics of the day,
     You would read the morning papers rather fully;
     For you’d like to find a theme to make your readers shout: “Hooray!”
     And to make your Dear Employer say: “That’s bully!”
     
     You would scan aforesaid journals with a very fine-tooth comb
     (With the metaphors I’m something of a mixer.)
     For a nifty little subject you could pad into a pome;
     And you’d have to be about it pretty quick, sir.

• The term is sometimes misunderstood as fine toothcomb, especially in the figurative sense. This form of the expression, and the associated concept of a toothcomb, is often considered erroneous, but fine toothcomb is said to be now “accepted in standard English” by at least the Oxford English Dictionary.^[3]
• Sense 2 (“means of making a thorough search”) is generally used in the form “to go through with a fine-tooth comb”.

• fine-toothed comb

• toothcomb

• fingertip search

fine-tooth comb (third-person singular simple present fine-tooth combs, present participle fine-tooth combing, simple past and past participle fine-tooth combed) (transitive)

1. (dated) To comb or go through (hair, an animal's fur, etc.) with a comb having fine, closely spaced teeth.
2. (figuratively) To search (something or somewhere) meticulously.

   Synonyms: comb over, comb through, leave no stone unturned, pore over, scour, turn upside down

   • 1912, Frank Gelett Burgess, The Master of Mysteries, Mrs. Stellery's Letters:

     "There's one other way of discovering the writer,—find a Rem-Smith typewriter with an alignment imperfect in just this way."
     "Yes," said Astro. "We might begin and fine-tooth-comb the city for it.{{..}}"