# came

Pronunciation: say "KAYM" /keɪm/

## Verb

1. Past tense of come. — simple past of come
   - Simple: Past tense of come. Use it for the past.
   - _A cold wind came down from the mountains overnight._
   - _The letter came two weeks after she had stopped expecting it._
2. Nonstandard past participle of come. Standard English uses come (had come, not had came). *(nonstandard)* — past participle of come
   - Simple: Nonstandard past participle of come, heard in casual speech after have or had. The standard form is come.
   - _We had came all that way for nothing, he complained._
   - _Nobody could believe how far the team had came that season._
4. Past tense of cum. — simple past of cum
   - Simple: Past tense of cum. Use this form for something that happened in the past.
   - _He came too quickly, before either of them was ready._
   - _She came with a soft cry and went limp against him._

## Preposition

3. Used before a following event, period, or change of state to mark that it arrived in the past after a time of waiting or anticipation.
   - Simple: Used before a time or event to show that it finally arrived after a long wait.
   - _Came the morning of the trial, she was finally ready to speak._
   - _Came the long-awaited harvest, the village celebrated for three days._

## Noun

5. A grooved strip of metal, traditionally lead or brass, used to hold panes of glass together in glazing.
   - Simple: A grooved metal strip that holds pieces of glass together in a window.
   - _She soldered every came where the strips crossed to lock the panel into shape._
   - _Restorers replaced the buckled cames that had let the medieval glass sag._

## Origin

Attested from the 17th century, this word is of unknown origin, possibly from "kame" (a ridge). Compare Scots "came" (comb), Scots "kame" (combing; a ridge), and Middle English "camet" (silver).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/came (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).