As an archaic term, coomb has two distinct meanings. In older commercial and agricultural usage, it referred to a measure for dry goods, especially grain, though its exact value varied by place and period. In poetry and landscape description, it more often means a small valley, deep hollow, or steep-sided cleft, giving the word a strongly rural, old English, and topographical flavour.

Coomb is related to regional forms such as combe, coombe, and the Welsh cwm, all associated with valleys or hollows. The landscape meaning is especially useful in pastoral, Romantic, or regional poetry, where it can evoke enclosed countryside, isolation, shelter, or ancient terrain. The measuring sense is now largely historical, so in poetic contexts readers are more likely to understand coomb* as a valley unless the surrounding language concerns trade, farming, grain, or market quantities.