come at

verb

To come to; to attend.

“His precise meaning was not easy to come at.”

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Meanings

verbcome at (third-person singular simple present comes at, present participle coming at, simple past came at, past participle come at)

present singular third person comes at · participle present coming at · past came at

  1. obsoleteTo come to; to attend.
  2. obsoleteTo enter into sexual relations with; to come on to (someone).
  3. To get to, especially with effort or difficulty.

    His precise meaning was not easy to come at.

  4. To attack (someone); to harass (someone); to challenge (someone) to a fight.

    As I backed away, he came at me with a knife.

    3 more examples

    a. 2001, Paul Keating, quoted in 2001, Brett Evans, The Life and Soul of the Party: A Portrait of Modern Labor, page 17, ‘He thought he′d come at the Australian Labor Party from the left. He thought he′d tie up the Catholic Church and the East Timor constituency by coming at Labor from that quarter. That′s what it has been all about.’

    Well I went to the recruiting office in Perth and the navy guy bailed me up first, ′cause they just come at you, like the navy guy comes at you, then the air force, ′cause they′ve got to get a quota I guess, and then the navy guy came at me and I told him about aviation and that I was keen on aviation and he′s off on his spiel about Sea Kings [helicopters] and all this sort of stuff and I think he might have fired guns or watched a radar or something on a boat somewhere, but he didn′t really know very much and then the army guy overheard him. He said ‘Aah. We′ve got all the helicopters, come over here.’

    2010, Michael Caulfield, editor, The Voices of War: Australians Tell Their Stories from World War I to the Present, unnumbered page

    And if we got through that, they′d come at us again in February or March. Even if we′d got through the parliamentary session, they′d keep coming at us.

    2010, Bob Ellis, One Hundred Days of Summer: How We Got to Where We Are, unnumbered page
  5. AustraliaNew ZealandslangtransitiveTo accept (a situation); to agree to do; to try.

    Nah, mate – I'm not going to come at that again. Too risky.

    3 more examples

    Mr. O'Loghlen: Do you think a factory would come at that?

    1922, Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 100, page 1139

    Somehow I don′t think ausadmin or news server managers at large would come at that idea.

    2000 October 24, Gary Meadows, “Is Scott Steel neutral in act-b? (was: The Great Australian Confusion)”, in aus.culture.true-blue (Usenet)

    […]he would have liked to be a roving correspondent for both the ABC and the BBC, but the BBC would not come at that arrangement.

    2006, Kenneth Stanley Inglis, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932-1983, page 174

Translations

Finnish hyökätä, käydä päälle
  • hyökätäTo attack, harass, or challenge
  • käydä päälleTo attack, harass, or challenge
  • käydä kimppuunTo attack, harass, or challenge
French attaquer
  • attaquerTo attack, harass, or challenge
Polish atakować, nachodzić
  • atakowaćTo attack, harass, or challenge
  • nachodzićTo attack, harass, or challenge
Portuguese atacar
  • atacarTo attack, harass, or challenge
Spanish atacar, achorarse
  • atacarTo attack, harass, or challenge
  • achorarseTo attack, harass, or challenge
  • derrancarTo attack, harass, or challenge
Cite this entry
APA

come at. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come%20at

MLA

“come at.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come%20at. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “come at,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come%20at.

Source: come at on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.