combe

See also: Combe and combé

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English coumbe, cumbe, from Old English cumb, from Proto-Brythonic (compare Welsh cwm), from Proto-Celtic *kumbā. Doublet of cwm.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) enPR: ko͞om, IPA(key): /kuːm/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Homophones: coom, cwm
  • Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

combe (plural combes)

  1. A valley, often wooded and often with no river
    • 1914, Saki, ‘The Cobweb’, Beasts and Superbeasts:
      its long, latticed window [...] looked out on a wild spreading view of hill and heather and wooded combe.
    • 1805, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Madoc, London: [] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and A[rchibald] Constable and Co, [], by James Ballantyne, [], →OCLC:
      gradual rise the shelving combe displayed.
    • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 264-265:
      You wake up next morning on what looks like Salisbury Plain, only here you climb up the side of every combe, round the end and out the other side.
  2. A cirque.

Usage notes

Used, especially in South West England, in many placenames, e.g. Compton, Wycombe.

Translations

Further reading

French

Etymology

From Transalpine Gaulish *cumba, from Proto-Celtic *kumbā. Compare Breton komm (river-bed), Irish com, Welsh cwm.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɔ̃b/

Noun

combe f (plural combes)

  1. (geography) combe (valley or hollow, often wooded and with no river)

Further reading

Galician

Verb

combe

  1. inflection of combar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkom.be/
  • Rhymes: -ombe
  • Hyphenation: cóm‧be

Noun

combe f

  1. plural of comba

Middle English

Noun

combe

  1. Alternative form of comb

Spanish

Verb

combe

  1. inflection of combar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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