Meanings
incoming1
- not comparableComing (or about to come) in; arriving.
Incoming tides cause a tidal bore in many rivers.
4 more examples
Underneath a black cliff where the incoming tide smashed on the shingle, they stumbled upon the mail hood of Hrothgar's murdered vassal.
1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35In dense fog at about 10.25 p.m. on the night of October 25, two tank barges carrying petroleum [...] missed the entrance to the docks at Sharpness and were carried up the River Severn by the incoming tide. They collided with one of the piers of the Severn Bridge, carrying the Berkeley Road-Lydney branch of the Western Region, and as a result of the collision both tankers blew up.
1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 3, 5The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.
2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist"We landed in their killbox?" "We did. I am sor... No, belay that. Heads down! Cavalry incoming!"
2015 February 1, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 14 May 2024 - not comparableSucceeding to an office or other position.
The incoming prime minister gave a press conference.
incoming2
plural incomings
- uncountablegovernmentEnemy fire directed at oneself.
I'll never forget the sight of those cannoneers standing at their guns firing back while the incoming was hitting all over. That was artillery's mission.
1992, Michael R. Conroy, Don't tell America!, page 1202 more examples
Volume, however, was only part of the story because the incoming was almost always the heavier stuff. The hill received little 60mm or 82mm mortar fire but a deluge of 120mm mortar and 100mm artillery rounds.
1977, Moyers S. Shore, The Battle for Khe SanhThings had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those aboard the Enterprise, meaning that the end result was round about the same, the Japanese aircraft screaming into their attack runs on Hornet about the same time as most of the Wildcats managed to sort themselves out to begin their own attacks on the incoming.
2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 11:05 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivearriving at a place or position
adjectiveentering upon a position of office vacated by another
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
incoming · adjective, interjection
From in (adverb) + coming (adjective).
Full word history & related roots →incoming · noun
- Middle Englishincomming
- Englishincoming
From Middle English incomming, in comyng, in-comyng, incomyng, in-comynge, incomynge, inne comyng, yn comyng, equivalent to in (adverb) + coming (noun).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian влизащ, пристигащ
- влизащ (vlizašt)coming in
- пристигащ (pristigašt)coming in
- следващ (sledvašt)succeeding to an office
Catalan entrant
- entrantsucceeding to an office
Czech příchozí
- příchozícoming in
Finnish saapuva, tuleva
- saapuvacoming in
- tulevacoming in
- seuraavasucceeding to an office
- tulevasucceeding to an office
French entrant, entrant
- entrantcoming in
- entrantsucceeding to an office
German eingehend
- eingehendcoming in
Italian prossimo, in arrivo
- prossimocoming in
- in arrivocoming in
- entrantesucceeding to an office
Māori taumai
- taumaicoming in
Norwegian Bokmål inngående
- inngåendecoming in
Polish przybywający, przyszły
- przybywającycoming in
- przyszłysucceeding to an office
Portuguese entrante
- entrantesucceeding to an office
Cite this entry
incoming. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incoming
“incoming.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incoming. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incoming,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incoming.
Source: incoming on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.