backcomb

See also: back-comb

English

Backcombed mohawk

Backcombs (sense 2)

Alternative forms

back-comb

Etymology

From back +‎ comb.

Verb

backcomb (third-person singular simple present backcombs, present participle backcombing, simple past and past participle backcombed)

To hold hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look.
Synonym: tease
- 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
  Her dark-blonde hair, worn long at Oxford, had been cut and backcombed, Diana-style, and quivered when she shook her head.

Translations

to hold hair and comb it towards the head

German: toupieren (de)
Greek: ξαίνω (el) (xaíno), κρεπάρω (el) (krepáro)
Hungarian: tupíroz (hu)

Noun

backcomb (plural backcombs)

The hairstyle produced by backcombing.
- 2012, “Sex”, performed by The 1975:
  You and your fit friends anyway / I'd take them all out any day / They all got backcombs anyway
(dated) A decorative comb worn as an ornament and to secure a hairstyle.
- 1876, Lex, Remarkable Criminal Trials in Bengal:
  There was a part of a bottle of liquor on the table—the furniture of the hall was disarranged—a pair of slippers, two small combs, and a backcomb were lying near an easy chair.
- 1912, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, volume 39, issues 1-6, page 252:
  A backcomb comprising a pair of oppositely disposed members of sheet material each provided with teeth along one margin, a pivot pin securing the members at one end in overlapping relation.
- 1920, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, The Lost Girl, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC:
  Her father had produced a pink crêpe de Chine blouse and a backcomb massed with brilliants—both of which she refused to wear.