They comb their hair with a herring-bone comb

[venta]

And another thing...

From the Daily Mail:

Aware that News of the World staff might use their final edition to fire a parting shot at her, Rebekah Brooks is said to have instructed two senior executives to read the paper with a ‘fine toothcomb’.

Now, I don't know if that's the Daily Fail's error, or Rebekah Brooks' error. And it's not the first time I've seen it. But really, guys...

Do you comb your teeth? No.
So is it likely that a toothcomb is a thing? No.

It's a fine-tooth(ed) comb, you idiots.

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The Oxford dictionaries reckon that fine toothcomb is sufficiently widely used as to now be considered acceptable. (Actually, jsut checking, my COD from 1995 was happy with it.) Of course, OK as usage doesn't mean it's not an error of sense.

This and this are quite interesting, although it doesn't seem to understand hyphens. Strange that the -ed version doesn't seem to be used at all in British.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

-ed is certainly the version I'd use. With a hyphen, though, so it might not show up on there.