come

present singular third person comes · participle present coming · past came · dialectal participle past came · participle past comen · first person past singular came · archaic first person past singular comed · archaic present second person singular comest · past second person singular came · archaic past second person singular camest · archaic past second person singular camedst · archaic past second person singular comed · archaic past second person singular comedst · present singular third person comes · archaic present singular third person cometh · past singular third person came

1. intransitiveTo move nearer to the point of perspective.

   She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes the wrong way […]

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   Look, who comes yonder?

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes, / I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere, […]

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 253

   1. intransitiveTo move toward the speaker.

      Stop dawdling and come here!

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      I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.

      Come one, come all. Step right up!

   2. intransitiveTo move toward the listener.

      Hold on, I'll come in a second.

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      You should ask the doctor to come to your house.

   3. intransitiveTo move toward the object that is the focus of the sentence.

      No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his aunts come to visit.

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      Hundreds of thousands of people come to Disneyland every year.

   4. intransitiveTo move toward the agent or subject of the main clause.

      King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.

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      He threw the boomerang, which came right back to him.

   5. intransitiveTo move toward an unstated agent.

      The butler should come when called.

2. intransitiveTo arrive.

   So I'd have ate^([sic]) when me Dad had ate, sort of thing, I think, you know when he come home from work, I'd have waited for him, I wouldn't have said I wanted mine at four o'clock[…]

   2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, Routledge, →ISBN, page 140

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   Late at night comes Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that he come from Chatham this evening at five o'clock, and saw this afternoon "The Royal James," "Oake," and "London," burnt by the enemy with their fire-ships: […]

   1667 June 22 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 13th, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, page 364

   Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,[…], and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo appear; to manifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.

   The news came as a shock.

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   The pain in his leg comes and goes.

   Kathy and I had a teen-age girl to girl talk, about boys, John, and understanding Mom. I was gonna tell her about Phil but I held my mouth till tears came.

   1965 January 4, Lou Sullivan, Diary

4. To begin (to have an opinion or feeling).

   She came to think of that country as her home.

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   We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.

   Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

5. To do something by chance or unintentionally.

   Could you tell me how the document came to be discovered?

6. intransitiveTo take a position relative to something else in a sequence.

   Which letter comes before Y? Winter comes after autumn.

7. intransitiveoftenslangvulgarTo achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.

   Come in me!

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   She came after a few minutes.

   Nick was more and more seriously absorbed, but then just before he came he had a brief vision of himself, as if the trees and bushes had rolled away and all the lights of London shone in on him: little Nick Guest from Barwick, Don and Dot Guest's boy, fucking a stranger in a Notting Hill garden at night.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN

   The sheer unimaginableness of coming into her mouth — of coming into anything other than the air or a tissue or a dirty sock — was an allurement too stupendous for a novice to forswear.

   2008, Philip Roth, Indignation

8. intransitiveTo become butter by being churned.

   when butter does refuse to come

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC

9. copulativefigurativelyTo approach or reach a state of being or accomplishment.

   One of the screws came loose, and the skateboard fell apart.

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   They came very close to leaving on time. His test scores came close to perfect.

10. figurativelyTo take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.

    He came to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.

11. archaiccopulativeTo become, to turn out to be (often in set phrases and certain collocations).

    come true

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    Near-synonyms: become, get, go, turn, fall, grow, wax

    come about

    come clean

    come alive

    come open

    Synonyms: become, get, go, turn, fall, grow, wax

12. intransitiveTo be supplied, or made available; to exist.

    He's as tough as they come.

    2 more examples

    Our milkshakes come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.

    A new sports car doesn't come cheap.

13. slangTo carry through; to succeed in.

    You can't come any tricks here.

14. intransitiveTo happen.

    This kind of accident comes when you are careless.

    1 more example

    But out of sight is out of mind. And that[…]means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair. If that repair does not come in time, the result is noxious and potentially hazardous.

    2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891

    Synonyms: come about, occur, take place

15. To have as an origin, originate.
    1. intransitiveTo have a certain social background.

       While Kate Roberts came from a poor background and, later in life, in the post-Second World War period suffered from severe money shortages, in the early 1930s, she and her husband must have counted themselves relatively well off, particularly in comparison with their neighbours in Tonypandy.

       2011, Kate Gramich, chapter 3, in Kate Roberts, University of Wales Press, →ISBN, page 46

    2. intransitiveTo be or have been a resident or native.

       Where did you come from?

    3. intransitiveTo have been brought up by or employed by.

       She comes from a good family.

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       He comes from a disreputable legal firm.

    4. intransitiveTo begin (at a certain location); to radiate or stem (from).

       The river comes from Bear Lake.

       1 more example

       Where does this road come from?

16. intransitiveTo germinate.
17. informaltransitiveTo pretend to be; to behave in the manner of; to assume the role of.

    Don’t come the innocent victim. We all know who’s to blame here.

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    “Hush! hush! Mr. Sikes,” said the Jew, trembling; “don’t speak so loud!” / “None of your mistering,” replied the ruffian; “you always mean mischief when you come that. You know my name: out with it! I shan’t disgrace it when the time comes.”

    1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC

    Ponds drew a chair to the table and seated himself and poured Mrs Dibble a gin, saying solemnly, "Now then, Mrs Dibble, what's it all about?" "I'm upholding my rights agen that woman that's been coming the high and mighty over me like I ain't got the right to say a word in me own business."

    1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 157

alternative pronunciation spelling coom

1. obsoleteuncountableComing, arrival; approach.

   “If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”

   1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone, section II

2. slanguncountablevulgarSemen.

   When a man uses a condom during sex, he takes all of his come with him, preventing her from getting pregnant.

3. slanguncountablevulgarFemale ejaculatory discharge.

alternative pronunciation spelling coom

1. Used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event or situation occurs.

   Come summer, we would all head off to the coast.

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   Leave it to settle for about three months and, come Christmas time, you'll have a delicious concoction to offer your guests.

   Come retirement, their Social Security may turn out to be a lot less than they counted on.

   "And a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clock come morning."

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 14

   Come the final whistle, Mikel Arteta lay flabbergasted on the turf.

   2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian

   She announced in April that come 10 February 2023, her songs would be featured in a romantic comedy titled It's All Coming Back To Me […]

   2022 October 5, Beatriz Colon, “Celine Dion ushers in holiday season with exciting music news”, in Hello! Magazine

alternative pronunciation spelling coom

1. datedformalAn exclamation to express annoyance.

   Come, come! Stop crying.

   2 more examples

   Come now! Things could be worse.

   "Come, that will do," interrupted Joolby with an impatient growl; […]

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

2. datedformalAn exclamation to express encouragement, or to precede a request.

   Come, come! You can do it.

   4 more examples

   Come now! It won't bite you.

   Her. What wisdome stirs amongst you? Come Sir, now I am for you againe: 'Pray you sit by vs, And tell's a Tale.

   c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   Come then, pure hands, and bear the head ⁠That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep, ⁠And come, whatever loves to weep, And hear the ritual of the dead.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 30

   “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

plural comes

1. alternativeobsoletemediaAlternative form of comma in its medieval use as a middot ⟨·⟩ serving as a form of colon.

   There be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer: and they be these, virgil,—come,—parenthesis,—plain point,—interrogative.

   1824, J. Johnson, Typographia

   1 more example

   Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that a full-point, a point called come, answering to our colon-point, a point called virgil answering to our comma-point, the parenthesis-points and interrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century.

   1842, F. Francillon, An Essay on Punctuation, page 9