come
Formscomes, coming, came, come
Formscomes, coming, came, come
- 1To move or travel toward the speaker, the listener, or the person or place being talked about.
Come and sit by me.
Could you come to my office when you have a minute?
Oppositego (entry), leave
- 2To arrive or reach the place in question.
What time will the train come?
The pizza took ages, and when it finally came, it was cold.
UsagePast came, past participle come: when it finally came, has come.
Oppositeleave, depart, go (entry)
Note
Arrival is where the dialect past shows most plainly. Alongside came, dialect speech uses come as a past tense, a form also found in older writing. Pepys in 1667 records a neighbor telling him he come from Chatham that evening, and a speaker recalling family meals says when he come home from work.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- In 1667, Samuel Pepys recorded his neighbour reporting that he come from Chatham that evening. gutenberg.org
- A speaker recalling family meals used the words when he come home from work. en.wiktionary.org
- 3
- 4To approach or reach a particular state, named by the word that follows.
The knot will come undone if you pull it.
The screws on this shelf keep coming loose.
UsageWith adjectives such as loose, undone and true: come loose, come undone, come true.
Similarbecome, get, go (entry), turn
- 5
- 6To be supplied, made available, or found to exist.
These jackets come in four sizes.
Good advice rarely comes free.
UsageCome in sizes or colors, and come cheap or come free: comes in four sizes.
Note
Its superlative idiom, as tough as they come, measures someone against the whole supply of their kind. A sports car doesn't come cheap describes the car's price, not the manner of its arrival.
- 7To be from a particular place, family, social background, or organization, as one's home, origin, or previous employer.
He comes from a village near Lyon.
People who come from the coast never quite settle inland.
UsageTo state your origin, say I come from Ohio or I'm from Ohio. Came from also works in past accounts.
- 8To appear, make itself felt, or produce a reaction by appearing.
Memories come unbidden at night.
Her resignation came as no surprise.
UsageCome as + a noun names the reaction: came as a shock, came as no surprise. Comes and goes means returns and fades.
Similarappear, arise, surface, emerge
Oppositego (entry), disappear
- 9With an infinitive, to reach the point of doing, feeling, or being something, gradually or by chance, as in come to love or how did you come to be here.
In time you will come to love the quiet.
I came to see that she was right.
UsageCommon with verbs of thinking or feeling: come to realize, came to believe, come to accept.
Similargrow
Note
A change of mind is told as a journey. The construction usually suggests gradualness: we came to believe implies the opinion was reached over time rather than formed at once. The same frame can also mark chance rather than slow change, as in how did the letter come to be found, and the verb that follows usually shows which.
- 10To take a particular position in a sequence.
In the alphabet, M comes immediately before N.
In this song, two short verses come before the first chorus.
UsageWith before or after: comes before N; also come first, come last.
Similarfall, occur, appear, go (entry)
- 11With to, to approach a subject with a particular attitude or background.
She came to poetry as an engineer, more interested in how a poem was built than in how it felt.
Readers who come to Joyce expecting a plot are disappointed.
UsageUsually come to + a subject, often with as or expecting: came to poetry as an engineer.
Less common meanings
- 12To reach a specified total, or to have a specified price or cost.
Once you add fees and a tip, the delivery order will come to about sixty dollars.
The new model comes in at roughly half the price of last year's version.
UsageCome to gives a total: That comes to forty dollars. Come in at states a price; come in under means below a stated amount.
- 13To reach orgasm or ejaculate.
They talked frankly about how long it took him to come.
The scene ends as she comes, the camera looking away.
Similarclimax, orgasm, ejaculate
Note
Sexual slang, where register matters more than meaning. It is often vulgar, yet novelists such as Hollinghurst and Roth use it in plain narration.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Alan Hollinghurst uses come in its sexual sense in narration, as in The Line of Beauty. en.wiktionary.org
- Philip Roth uses come in its sexual sense in narration, as in Indignation. en.wiktionary.org
- 14Used before a stated time to mean at or after that time.
Come spring, the whole valley turns green.
Come Monday, the offer expires.
Note
A verb turned preposition. It looks ahead, marking the moment from which something will hold. It can also follow a clock time, as in six o'clock come morning, meaning six tomorrow morning, a looser, more spoken use.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The temporal preposition come developed from a verb form. en.wikipedia.org
- 15Informal, chiefly British: to act in a particular way or try to pull off a trick, as in don't come the innocent with me.
Don't come the expert with me; you've only read one book on it.
She was coming the grand dame over the neighbors.
UsageMostly in reproaches, with the + a role: come the expert, come the high and mighty.
Similarplay
Note
It is reproachful, said of an act someone else is putting on. Sikes in Oliver Twist tells Fagin he always means mischief when he comes that.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- In Oliver Twist, Sikes tells Fagin that Fagin always means mischief when he 'comes that'. gutenberg.org
- 16Used to urge, encourage, or reassure someone, or to show mild impatience or disapproval, as in Come, come, no tears.
Come, let us try once more.
Her. What wisdome stirs amongst you? Come Sir, now I am for you againe: 'Pray you sit by vs, And tell's a Tale.
c. 1610, William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”Note
Encouragement in the same dated form as the reproof: come come, you can do it. It also clears the way for a request. Hermione in The Winter's Tale says come, sir, then asks for a tale, and Tennyson summons mourners with come then. Placed before an imperative, it softens the request rather than sharpening it.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Hermione in The Winter's Tale says "Come, sir" and then asks for a tale. shakespeare.mit.edu
- Tennyson summons mourners with "Come then". uwyo.edu
- 17Slang for the fluid ejaculated at orgasm, especially semen.
He noticed a patch of dried come on the hotel towel and called the front desk.
He wiped the come away and said nothing.
Note
Vulgar slang for the fluid, paired with the verb for orgasm.
- 18Of grain, to germinate or sprout.
- 19Of milk or cream being churned, to turn into butter: when butter does refuse to come.
- 20The act of arriving or drawing near.
“If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”
1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone - 21In medieval writing, a raised dot used as a punctuation mark with roughly the force of a colon.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
"Come" comes from Middle English "comen," from Old English "cuman," from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną ("to come"), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem- ("to step"). It is related to German "kommen," Dutch "komen," and Swedish "komma," and through the same ancient root to Latin "veniō" ("to come, arrive").
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- English come derives from Middle English comen, Old English cuman, and Proto-Germanic *kwemaną, meaning 'to come'. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate reconstructed root is Proto-Indo-European *gʷem-, meaning 'to step'. en.wiktionary.org
- Come is cognate with German kommen and Dutch komen. en.wiktionary.org
- Swedish komma shares the Proto-Germanic ancestor of English come. en.wiktionary.org
- Come is cognate with Latin veniō through their shared Proto-Indo-European root. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin veniō means 'to come, arrive'. en.wiktionary.org