cut someone's comb
English
editEtymology
editFrom the practice of cutting the combs of capons.
Verb
editcut someone's comb (third-person singular simple present cuts someone's comb, present participle cutting someone's comb, simple past and past participle cut someone's comb)
- To humiliate someone who is conceited.
- Synonyms: cut down to size, take down a notch
- 1877, Timothy Shay Arthur, The Bar-rooms at Brantly; Or, The Great Hotel Speculation, page 423:
- Ha! ha! I can't help thinking of his swaggering self-importance the first time he came here; and how I cut his comb.
References
edit- John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary