: a combination especially of business or political interests
… Grumman Corp. lost the advanced tactical aircraft contract to the combine of McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics. George J. Church
b
: an event at which scouts from the teams in a professional sports league gather to evaluate players in preparation for choosing which players to draft
a scouting combine
Every spring the National Football League conducts that most cherished of American rituals, the college draft. A couple of months before the event, prospective players show off their abilities in an athletic audition known as the combine. Carl Zimmer
2
: a harvesting machine that heads, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field
join implies a bringing into contact or conjunction of any degree of closeness.
joined forces in an effort to win
combine implies some merging or mingling with corresponding loss of identity of each unit.
combined jazz and rock to create a new music
unite implies somewhat greater loss of separate identity.
the colonies united to form a republic
connect suggests a loose or external attachment with little or no loss of identity.
a mutual defense treaty connected the two nations
link may imply strong connection or inseparability of elements still retaining identity.
a name forever linked with liberty
associate stresses the mere fact of frequent occurrence or existence together in space or in logical relation.
opera is popularly associated with high society
relate suggests the existence of a real or presumed logical connection.
related what he observed to what he already knew
Example Sentences
Noun The teams belong to a combine that scouts new players. charged that the cable companies had formed an illegal combine for the purpose of keeping rates artificially high
Word History
Etymology
Verb (1) and Noun
Middle English, from Middle French combiner, from Late Latin combinare, from Latin com- + bini two by two — more at bin-