Meanings
plural come-all-yous · alternative come-all-ye
- IrelandA traditional folk or country song.
He slapped his thighs and whooped and catcalled, encouraging anyone who knew it to join in the ‘traditional come-all-you’!
2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury, published 2007, page 31 more example
He had little turns for it, grace notes that he used to put in that I haven’t got. That was the boy who could sing a come-all-you, if you like.
1916, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC
Origin
From the common occurrence in such songs of an exhortation beginning "come all you".
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
come-all-you. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come-all-you
“come-all-you.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come-all-you. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “come-all-you,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/come-all-you.
Source: come-all-you on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.