English · Idiom Historical

Service Acts

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A comb-out was a thorough clearing out or clean sweep of men of military age in offices, works, etc., and getting them into the Army.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

việc thanh lọc toàn diện những người đủ tuổi quân dịch

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “Service Acts” mean?

A comb-out was a thorough clearing out or clean sweep of men of military age in offices, works, etc., and getting them into the Army.

Is “Service Acts” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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