cut someone's comb

From the practice of cutting the combs of capons.

cut someone's comb (third-person singular simple present cuts someone's comb, present participle cutting someone's comb, simple past and past participle cut someone's comb)

1. To humiliate someone who is conceited.

   Synonyms: cut down to size, take down a notch

   • 1877, Timothy Shay Arthur, The Bar-rooms at Brantly; Or, The Great Hotel Speculation, page 423:

     Ha! ha! I can't help thinking of his swaggering self-importance the first time he came here; and how I cut his comb.

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary