combines

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of combine.

   The new alloy combines strength with surprising lightness.

   Her teaching combines clear explanation with plenty of practice.

   Note

   In practice this form usually arrives with a partner preposition: one subject combines X with Y, as in classical music with a modern sound, or strength with lightness. The intransitive "come together" use normally takes a plural subject (the elements combine), so it appears less often with the -s ending. Card players have their own use: in casino, a player who combines plays one card to take several whose pips add up to it.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of combine.

   A line of combines moved steadily through the ripe grain at dusk.

   Several agricultural combines merged to dominate the regional grain market.

   Note

   One spelling covers many machines and alliances, because the plural serves every kind of combine at once. Eighteen combines in a field are harvesters, short for combine harvester. Combines in a market are joint business enterprises, sometimes with monopolistic aims. The same plural also covers Soviet-bloc industrial conglomerations, artworks set between painting and sculpture, railway cars mixing passengers and freight, and football tryouts. The spelling is shared with the present-tense verb form, as in she combines.

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