Word.ws English Dictionary

bring to a head

bring to a head is the causative form of come to a head.

Meaning of come to a head

Verb

come to a head (third-person singular simple present comes to a head, present participle coming to a head, simple past came to a head, past participle come to a head)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To rapidly reach a turning point or climax.
    • The escalating crisis between England and her American colonies came to a head when fighting broke out in 1775.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To suddenly reveal itself, having lain latent for a time.
    • His festering anger came to a head after the incident.
  3. (idiomatic, intransitive) To suddenly become mature or perfected, having been inchoate or imperfectly formed.
  4. (intransitive) To reach its final stage.

Forms of bring to a head

third-person singular presentbrings to a head
present participlebringing to a head
past participlebrought to a head
pastbrought to a head

Questions about bring to a head

What is bring to a head the causative form of?
Bring to a head is the causative form of come to a head.

Words near bring to a head in the dictionary

  1. bring the wood
  2. bring through
  3. bring to
  4. bring to a boil
  5. bring to a close
  6. bring to a head
  7. bring to an end
  8. bring to bear
  9. bring to bed
  10. bring to book
  11. bring to ground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bring to a head (page history and authors); come to a head (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bring to a head.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bring_to_a_head. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.