Now dial. Also combing. [app. (from quots. 1483, 1577, 1688) orig. the same word as prec.: see COME v. 14; but it appears to have been referred in later times to COME sb.2]
1. Sprouting, esp. of barley in the malting.
1483. Cath. Angl., 86. Cummynge [v.r. Cummyn] as malte, germinatus.
1577. Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 156. To shoote at the root end, which maltsters call Comming.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew. (1660), 170. It beginneth but to sprout, (which is called coming of Malt).
1683. R. Holme, Armoury, III. iii. 105. The comeing of Barley or Malt is the spritting of it, as if it cast out a root. Wither it: is to cast it abroad on the kill floor, when it is come, that the comeings may wither away.
2. concr. in pl. The comes or dried radicles of malted grain; malt-dust.
1683. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 320/2. Cleanse the Malt from Dust and Comings.
1824. Mech. Mag., No. 41. 206. Comings, being the radicles of barley, produced in the process of malting.
1888. W. Somerset Word-bk., 151. In the process of malting, each corn of barley grows a very distinct root … These roots are called combings, or combs.
