combine

Formscombines, combining, combined

Pluralcombines

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To bring two or more things or activities together into a single whole.

   The recipe asks you to combine the dry ingredients before adding milk.

   Architects often combine glass and steel in modern buildings.

   Similarmix, blend, merge, unite, join

   Oppositeseparate, divide, split

   Note

   The core sense, and the one the word's history explains: Late Latin combīnāre meant "to unite, yoke together," built from con- "together" and bīnī "two by two." One useful construction puts combined after a noun to mean "taken together." William and Merri Sue Carter write that scurvy killed more seamen "than all other causes combined." In the active, the usual pattern is combine A and B.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To come together and form a single united whole.

   When the chemicals combine, they release a great deal of heat.

   Several small parties combined to form a single political movement.

   Similarmerge, unite, join, fuse, amalgamate

   Oppositeseparate, split, divide

   Note

   The intransitive partner of the "bring together" meaning: the things themselves do the joining. The subject is plural, or a single party joined to others with with. Dryden's "You with your foes combine" (1675) uses it of an alliance, and Scott's "So sweet did harp and voice combine" (1805) uses it of harmony. Substances that bond readily are said to combine easily.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To unite in itself at least two things or qualities that work together.

   These fabrics combine warmth and breathability in a single layer.

   Her design combines beauty with everyday usefulness.

   Similarunite, blend, marry, pair, couple

   Note

   Here the subject does not do the joining. It already holds the qualities side by side. A fabric, a design or a person combines one thing with another, and the pattern lends itself to irony: Joe "combines the intelligence of a rock with the honesty of a politician." Compare the "bring together" meaning, where someone deliberately mixes things.

4. 4
   SayKOM-bynUS/ˈkɑm.baɪn/UK/ˈkɒm.baɪn/

   nounabbreviationellipsis

   Short form of combine harvester.

   By August the combine was running through the barley from dawn to dusk.

   The cooperative bought a new combine to speed up the harvest.

   Note

   The clipped name is standard in farming talk, where the full compound is seldom said. It inflects as an ordinary noun (combines) and works as a modifier too, as in The Wurzels' "combine wheels" (1976). The machine earns its name by joining three jobs in one: harvesting, threshing and winnowing ripe grain.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A combination of two or more people or things that have been brought together.

   The opening combine of Rao and Mehta put on a hundred runs before lunch.

   The screenwriting combine behind the film had already worked together on six scripts.

   Similarpartnership, pairing, team, combination, duo

   Note

   Here the noun keeps its widest reach, and the business meaning is a narrower case of it. Late Latin combīnāre, "to yoke together," was built on bīnī, "two by two," and the image of a yoked pair still suits a combine of partners or collaborators. Once the joining becomes a commercial arrangement, especially one suspected of monopoly or fraud, the word has moved into the joint-enterprise meaning.

6. 6
   SayKOM-bynUS/ˈkɑm.baɪn/UK/ˈkɒm.baɪn/

   nouncountable

   A joint business enterprise of any legal form, created to promote its members' interests, sometimes with monopolistic or fraudulent aims.

   The mining combine controlled nearly every quarry in the valley.

   Investigators alleged the combine had rigged contracts for years.

   Similarcartel, syndicate, consortium, conglomerate, trust

   Note

   A combination in the commercial sense, and the word often carries a hint of suspicion. A combine is the kind of thing companies are accused of forming, illegal or monopolistic. It can also be neutral: David Brandon's history of the 1926 General Strike describes the huge manufacturing combines of the USA and Germany before the First World War. Compare the Soviet-bloc industrial complex, which was planned by the state rather than formed privately.

7. 7
   SayKOM-bynUS/ˈkɑm.baɪn/UK/ˈkɒm.baɪn/

   nouncountable

   An evaluation event at which prospective players perform drills and games hoping to earn a place on a professional football team.

   Scouts timed every sprint at the combine before making draft decisions.

   Her brother attended the combine but went undrafted.

   Similartryout

   Note

   A fixture of the American football calendar, almost always with the definite article: the combine, or the NFL combine. Prospects train specifically for it, and Scott Shetler's 2008 guide pairs it with the "pro-day test." Its value is debated too, and Jay R. Hoffman cites a 2008 study of whether the combine predicts performance in the NFL.

8. 8
   SayKOM-bynUS/ˈkɑm.baɪn/UK/ˈkɒm.baɪn/

   nouncountable

   A large industrial grouping operated as a single enterprise in a socialist country, particularly in the former Soviet bloc.

   The agricultural combine merged dozens of collective farms under one management.

   Production quotas for the combine were set years in advance.

   Similarkombinat

   Note

   English uses the word to render Russian kombinat, which is also borrowed as is. It names an enterprise that groups linked production stages or plants under one administration in a centrally planned economy. Such combines are typically named by what they make, as in "the sheet and tin combine," and the word belongs to writing about the former Soviet bloc.

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