Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to sort out, to put in order.

1899		Kipling ‘The Flag of Their Country’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 213: Try to stand up without leanin’ against each other, you blear-eyed, herrin’-gutted gutter-snipes. It’s no pleasure to me to comb you out. That ought to have been done before you came here.
1939		V. Cranton Keepers of the Desert 215: [I]t will give us a pretext for combing out that district and putting the fear of Allah into them.