Synonyms of combing

combing

verb

present participle of comb

as in searching

to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something

combed the library for the missing book

Synonyms & Similar Words

• searching
• scanning
• finding
• scouring
• surveying
• raking
• exploring
• examining
• investigating
• locating
• rummaging
• dredging
• trolling
• inspecting
• digging (through)
• ransacking
• hunting (through)
• sorting (through)
• discovering
• reviewing
• rifling
• scrutinizing
• detecting
• learning
• determining
• ascertaining
• auditing
• studying
• checking (out)
• probing
• frisking
• tracking (down)
• perusing
• hitting (on or upon)
• browsing
• getting
• snooping
• finding out
• running down
• prospecting
• poking (around)
• shaking down
• ferreting (out)
• patting down
• looking over
• glancing (over)
• descrying
• skirmishing
• grubbing (about)
• scaring up

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• hiding
• losing
• ignoring
• abandoning
• neglecting

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of combing

When the time came for the Southern Living staff to begin the process of combing through 60 years of recipes, we were each randomly assigned a couple of issues from various years. — Jenna Sims, Southern Living, 8 July 2026

Meanwhile, Dondi’s son and son-in-law kept combing the flood area for objects, as did her husband, who also transported bins of things back to the warehouse and coached volunteers. — Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Money, 6 July 2026

Buyers spend weekends combing through boxes and basements precisely because every so often someone misses something. — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 6 July 2026

Curating requires combing through archives, then culling them into something cohesive. — Lonnie G. Bunch Iii, The Atlantic, 4 July 2026

The International Rescue Committee said children are among the nearly 50,000 people still missing and searchers are combing through the rubble with bare hands trying to find survivors. — Emily Shapiro, ABC News, 1 July 2026

Watchers of the original have been combing through the unrated version, which lists the same runtime as the original, looking for differences. — Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026

The main reason for the current CPU renaissance is that agentic AI systems perform many of those general-purpose tasks, such as browsing the web, managing files, and combing through databases. — Paulina Likos, CNBC, 27 June 2026

The number is expected to rise as rescuers continue combing through the rubble. — Will Clark, NBC news, 26 June 2026