uncomb

English

Etymology

un- +‎ comb

Verb

uncomb (third-person singular simple present uncombs, present participle uncombing, simple past and past participle uncombed)

1. To reverse the effect of combing; to muss.
   • 1974, Cosmopolitan - Volume 177, page 98:

     While I eat the popcorn, Loretta uncombs the “set” on her hairpiece.

   • 1988, Hunger in America:

     I decided to uncomb my hair and put on baggy pants and a dirty shirt and apply for food stamps.

   • 1995, Calíope:

     The wind neither moves, nor spreads, nor even uncombs her hair in rapid flight.

   • 2013, Antonia Dalpiaz, Enventarse Na Vita/To Invent a Life, →ISBN:

     Your hands warm as Summer feel for my hair to uncomb it and hide your lips within a kiss.

2. To remove a backcomb from.
   • 1860, Chambers's Journal - Volume 33, page 257:

     She was dishevelled in attire; her stocking was down at heel like a stage Hamlet's ; her beautiful thick flaxen hair had burst all restraint, and tumbled about face, and neck, and shoulders with utter recklessness— I notice that hair always seems to uncomb, and unconfine, and ruffle itself in emotional situations— great tears hung on as long as they could to her beautiful eyelashes, and then dropped, tired out, on to her slate;

   • 1899, William Romaine Paterson, Siren City, page 170:

     She began to uncomb her hair which fell in masses on her shoulders.

   • 1974, Alice Hoffman, Honey and Palms Promised, page 62:

     Mary Ann uncombs her hair and lets it hang loose, down her back; her neck is wet and the hair seems heavier.

3. To comb out; to disentangle.
   • 1963, George Worthington, Factory - Volume 121, page 151:

     Its oscillating motion rakes the cotton to uncomb it for uniform feeding to conveyorized dryer at right of photo

   • 1992, William Carlos Williams Review - Volumes 18-19, page 81:

     Listen to the roar of the Falls, the overwhelming roar of the people, and try to uncomb some of the many threads that make up the great, unstable river of language.

   • 2015, Virginia Gavian Rivers, Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum, →ISBN:

     Her tangled hair would take a magician to uncomb.

   • 2015, Polly Vernon, Hot Feminist, →ISBN:

     And anyway, if they knew that we were merely trying to uncomb the almighty bird's nest which has established itself, Winehouse-like, at the base of our skull, where our hairline and our neck merge, they'd be so disappointed.