come
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kʌm/
ipa: [kʰɐm]
enpr: kŭm
ipa: /kʌm/
ipa: [kʰʌm]
enpr: kŭm
ipa: [kəm]
ipa: [km̩]
ipa: [km]
note: Dublin, Cork, Northern England
ipa: /kʊm/
homophone: cum
rhymes: -ʌm
Forms: form: comes
form: coming
form: came
form: come
form: come
form: came
form: comen
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: come
form: come
form: came
form: come
form: comed
form: come
form: comest
form: came
form: come
form: camest
form: camedst
form: comed
form: comes
form: cometh
form: came
form: come
form: comed
form: come
form: came
form: come
form: comed
form: come
form: came
form: come
form: comed
form: come
form: -
form: coming
form: come
form: came
form: comen
form: comed
Etymology: From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt (“to step”), from *gʷem- (“to step”).
Cognates
Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum (“to come”), Saterland Frisian kuume (“to come”), West Frisian komme (“to come”), Low German kamen (“to come”), Dutch komen (“to come”), German kommen (“to come”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish komme (“to come”), Swedish komma (“to come”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic koma (“to come”).
Cognate from PIE via Latin veniō (“come, arrive”) with many Romance language terms (e.g., French venir, Portuguese vir, Spanish venir), Lithuanian gimti (“to be born, come into the world, arrive”), with terms in Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan 𐬘𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬍 (jamaⁱtī, “to go”)), via Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “to go”) with many Indic language terms (e.g., Hindi गति (gati)).
Cognate to English basis, from PIE via Ancient Greek.
Senses: examples: text: She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes the wrong way […]
text: Look, who comes yonder?
ref: 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]:
text: Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes, / I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere, […]
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 253:
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
examples: text: I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.
text: Stop dawdling and come here!
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
To move toward the speaker.
examples: text: Hold on, I'll come in a second.
text: You should ask the doctor to come to your house.
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
To move toward the listener.
examples: text: No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his aunts come to visit.
text: Hundreds of thousands of people come to Disneyland every year.
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
To move toward the object that is the focus of the sentence.
examples: text: King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.
text: He threw the boomerang, which came right back to him.
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
To move toward the agent or subject of the main clause.
raw_tags: in subordinate clauses and gerunds
examples: text: The butler should come when called.
glosses: To move nearer to the point of perspective.
To move toward an unstated agent.
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 1667 June 23 (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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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[…]
ref: 2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, Routledge, →ISBN, page 140:
glosses: To arrive.
examples: text: The pain in his leg comes and goes.
text: The news came as a shock.
glosses: To appear; to manifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.
examples: text: We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.
text: She came to think of that country as her home.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: To begin (to have an opinion or feeling).
raw_tags: with an infinitive
examples: text: Could you tell me how the document came to be discovered?
glosses: To do something by chance or unintentionally.
raw_tags: with an infinitive
examples: text: Which letter comes before Y? Winter comes after autumn.
glosses: To take a position relative to something else in a sequence.
examples: text: She came after a few minutes.
text: Come in me!
text: 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.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
text: 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.
ref: 2008, Philip Roth, Indignation:
glosses: To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
examples: text: when butter does refuse to come
ref: 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:
glosses: To become butter by being churned.
raw_tags: of milk
examples: text: They came very close to leaving on time. His test scores came close to perfect.
text: One of the screws came loose, and the skateboard fell apart.
glosses: To approach or reach a state of being or accomplishment.
examples: text: He came to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.
glosses: To take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.
raw_tags: with to
examples: text: He was a dream come true.
text: How come you thus estranged?
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: He saw a gnarled old woman vigorously scrubbing a very dirty boy, who squirmed under the rough usage and screwed up his eyes and mouth to keep out the soap. "Drat the boy," cried the old lady, wrathfully. "Stand still, do! Will he ever come clean?"
ref: 1910, The Poster, Poster Advertising Association, Notable Poster Illustrations, page 17:
glosses: To become, to turn out to be.
examples: text: He's as tough as they come.
text: Our milkshakes come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.
text: A new sports car doesn't come cheap.
glosses: To be supplied, or made available; to exist.
examples: text: You can't come any tricks here.
glosses: To carry through; to succeed in.
examples: text: This kind of accident comes when you are careless.
text: 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.
ref: 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
synonyms: come about
occur
take place
glosses: To happen.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2011, Kate Gramich, chapter 3, in Kate Roberts, University of Wales Press, →ISBN, page 46:
glosses: To have as an origin, originate.
To have a certain social background.
raw_tags: with from or sometimes of
examples: text: Where did you come from?
glosses: To have as an origin, originate.
To be or have been a resident or native.
raw_tags: with from or sometimes of
examples: text: She comes from a good family.
text: He comes from a disreputable legal firm.
glosses: To have as an origin, originate.
To have been brought up by or employed by.
raw_tags: with from or sometimes of
examples: text: The river comes from Bear Lake.
text: Where does this road come from?
glosses: To have as an origin, originate.
To begin (at a certain location); to radiate or stem (from).
raw_tags: with from or sometimes of
glosses: To germinate.
raw_tags: of grain
examples: text: Don’t come the innocent victim. We all know who’s to blame here.
text: “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.”
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
text: 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."
ref: 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 157:
glosses: To pretend to be; to behave in the manner of; to assume the role of.
Derived terms: a bad penny always comes back
aftercome
after Saturday comes Sunday
again-coming
all good things come to an end
all good things must come to an end
all is fish that comes to the net
all's fish that comes to the net
all things come to those who wait
a long time in coming
ancome
appetite comes with eating
as they come
backward in coming forward
bad comes to worse
bad comes to worst
bad things come in threes
become
big things come in small packages
blow to kingdom come
burn that bridge when one comes to it
can I come in
carry-go-bring-come
Christmas come early
Christmas comes but once a year
Christmas is coming
come about
come a cropper
come across
come across with
come after
come again
come a gutser
come alive
come-all-ye
come-all-you
come aloft
come along
come-along
come a long way
come-and-cuddle-me
come and go
come apart
come-around
come around
come as no surprise
come at
come-at-able
come at a cost
come at me
come away
come away empty
come back
come back from the dead
come back to bite
come back to haunt
come back to one's senses
come before
come between
come by
Come By Chance
come calling
come clean
come correct
come down
come-down
comedown
come down cats and dogs
come down in stair rods
come down in the last shower
come down on
come down the line
come down the pike
come down the road
come down to
come down to earth
come down to us
come down with
come down with one's dust
come down with the dust
come 'ead
come ed
come 'ed
come first
come for
come forth
come forward
come from
come from a Cracker Jack box
come from a good place
come from behind
come from below
come from the right place
come full circle
come get some
come good
come hand
come head
come hell or high water
come-here
come here to me
come high
come-hither
come hither
come-hithery
come home
come home by weeping cross
come home to roost
come in
come in for
come in from the cold
come in handy
come in hot
come into
come into being
come into effect
come into force
come into one's own
come into play
come into the world
come in use
come in useful
come it
come it strong
come knocking
comeling
come low
come of
come of age
come-off
come off
come off it
come off second best
come on
come-on
come on down
come one's way
come on in
come online
come on over
come on strong
come onto
come on to
come out
come-outer
come-outerism
come out in
come out in the wash
come-outism
come out of one's shell
come out of the broom closet
come out of the closet
come out of the woodwork
come out on top
come out smelling like a rose
come out smelling of roses
come out swinging
come out with
come over
come-over
come-o'-will
come rain or shine
come rain or snow
come right
come round
come running
come short
come the acid
come the old acid
come the old soldier
come the raw prawn
come thick and fast
come through
come to
come to a boil
come to a close
come to a head
come to anchor
come to an end
come to a stand
come to a sticky end
come to a stop
come to bat
come to be
come-to-bed
come to bed
come to blows
come to find out
come to fruition
come together
come to grief
come to grips
come to grips with
come to hand
come to Jesus
come-to-Jesus
come to life
come to light
come to mention it
come to mind
come to naught
come to nothing
come to nought
come to oneself
come to one's hand
come to one's senses
come to order
come to papa
come to pass
come to power
come to rest
come to someone's aid
come to someone's rescue
come to terms
come to terms with
come to that
come to the party
come to the scratch
come to think of it
come to time
come true
come under
come undone
come unhinged
come unstuck
come up
come up against
come up and bite
come up from behind
come upon
come upon the parish
come upon the town
come-uppance
come up roses
come up short
come up smelling like a rose
come up smelling of roses
come up snake eyes
come up to
come up trumps
come up with
come up with snake eyes
come up with the goods
come up with the rations
come what may
come with
come with it
come with the territory
come with the turf
come Yorkshire over
coming and going
coming from you
coming into force
coming of age
coming-of-age
coming out of someone's ears
coming-out party
coming through
coming together
cross a bridge before one comes to it
cross that bridge when one comes to it
cut and come again
cut-and-come-again
Daniel come to judgement
death-come-quickly
downcome
do you come here often
dream come true
first come first served
first-come-first-served
forecome
forthcome
get what's coming to one
go back to where you came from
good things come in small packages
good things come in threes
good things come to those who wait
have another thing coming
have another think coming
have another thought coming
hold come what may
how came you so
how come
how's come
I come in peace
if the mountain won't come to Muhammad
income
intercome
Johnny-come-lately
Jonny-come-lately
long in coming
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb
marry come up
miscome
misfortunes never come alone
misfortunes never come singly
newcome
non-coming
not know whether one is coming or going
off-come
offcome
oncome
oncoming
one of these odd-come-shortlies
one's ship comes in
on the come
outcome
overcome
pride comes before a fall
pride comes before the fall
proverbs come in pairs
proverbs often come in pairs
proverbs should come in pairs
put two and two together and come up with five
seven come eleven
take something as it comes
thanks for coming
thanks for coming to my TED Talk
the bad penny always comes back
the British are coming
the call is coming from inside the house
the chickens come home to roost
the freaks come out at night
the handbags come out
there's more where that came from
the shape of things to come
the time has come
the wheels came off
the wheels came off the bus
the wheels came off the wagon
think all one's Christmases have come at once
this is where I came in
this is where we came in
till the cow come home
till the cows come home
'til the cows come home
time to come
to-come
tocome
to come
Tommy come tickle me
tomorrow never comes
un-come-at-able
undercome
until Kingdom come
until the cows come
until the cows come home
up and coming
upcome
upcoming
we come in peace
welcome
what comes around goes around
what goes around comes around
what goes round comes round
what goes up must come down
what go round come round
what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
when it comes to
when push comes to shove
when the time comes
when two Sundays come together
where I come from
where someone is coming from
why come
world to come
worse comes to worse
worse comes to worst
worst comes to worst
Related terms: c'mere
c'min
c'mon
cam'st
kingdom come