Primary
''combine'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260213210016-00-⌔
combine - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Verb
combine (third-person singular simple present combines, present participle combining, simple past and past participle combined)
- (transitive) To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite.
- ✤ * Combine the milk and the hot water in a large bowl.*
- ✤ I’m combining business and pleasure on this trip.
- ✤ Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.1
- (transitive) To have two or more things or properties that function together.
- ✤ Joe combines the intelligence of a rock with the honesty of a politician.
- (intransitive) To come together; to unite.
- (card games) In the game of casino, to play a card which will take two or more cards whose aggregate number of pips equals those of the card played.
- (obsolete) To bind; to hold by a moral tie.
- ✤ I am combined by a sacred vow.4
Noun
combine (plural combines)
- Ellipsis of combine harvester.
- ✤ We can’t finish harvesting because our combine is stuck in the mud.
- ✤ When those combine wheels stops turnin’
And the hard days work is done
Theres a pub around the corner
It’s the place we ‘ave our fun5- A combination.
- Especially, a joint enterprise of whatever legal form for a purpose of business or in any way promoting the interests of the participants, sometimes with monopolistic or fraudulent intentions.
- ✤ Hyponyms: corporation, conglomerate, cartel
- ✤ The telecom companies were accused of having formed an illegal combine in order to hike up the network charges.
- ✤ [In the decades before the First World War] In the USA and Germany in particular, huge manufacturing combines were being created and were developing a very powerful economic and increasingly political presence at home and on international markets.6
- An industrial conglomeration in a socialist country, particularly in the former Soviet bloc.
- ✤ Synonym: kombinat
- ✤ His grandmother worked in the stamping plant of the sheet and tin combine.
- (art) An artwork falling between painting and sculpture, having objects embedded into a painted surface.
- Ellipsis of combine car, a type of railway car that combines passenger and freight functions.
- (American football) A test match in which applicants play in the hope of earning a position on a professional football team.
- ✤ If you purchased this book chances are that you are planning on participating in a football combine or pro-day test.7
- ✤ In 2008, a study was published that examined the ability of the NFL combine to predict football playing performance in the NFL (Kuzmits and Adams, 2008).8
- ✤ At the combine, Reagor compared himself to the 49ers’ Deebo Samuel or Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill — whom he said he watched “every day”9
Etymology
From Middle English combynyn, from Middle French combiner, from Late Latin combīnāre (“unite, yoke together”), from Latin con- (“together”) + bīnī (“two by two”).10
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-06-28.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87: ↩
1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC,: ↩
1805, Walter Scott, “”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC: ↩
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]: ↩
1976, The Wurzels, I Am A Cider Drinker: ↩
2023, David Brandon, The General Strike 1926: A New History, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 48: ↩
2008, Scott Shetler, Optimal Performance Techniques for the Football Combine, page 5: ↩
2020, Jay R. Hoffman, The Science of American Football: ↩
2020 April 23, Ken Belson, Ben Shpigel, “Full Round 1 2020 N.F.L. Picks and Analysis”, in The New York Times , New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 April 2020: ↩
“combine, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩
Secondary
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