come

Verb

come (third-person singular simple present comes, present participle coming, simple past came or (dialectal) come, past participle come or (dialectal) came or comen)

1. (intransitive) To move nearer to the point of perspective.
   • She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes the wrong way […]
   • Look, who comes yonder?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]...
   1. (intransitive) To move toward the speaker.
      • I called the dog, but she wouldn't come.
      • Stop dawdling and come here!
   2. (intransitive) To move toward the listener.
      • Hold on, I'll come in a second.
      • You should ask the doctor to come to your house.
   3. (intransitive) To move toward the object that is the focus of the sentence.
      • No-one can find Bertie Wooster when his aunts come to visit.
      • Hundreds of thousands of people come to Disneyland every year.
   4. (intransitive) To move toward the agent or subject of the main clause.
      • King Cnut couldn't stop the tide coming.
      • He threw the boomerang, which came right back to him.
   5. (intransitive) To move toward an unstated agent.
      • The butler should come when called.
2. (intransitive) To arrive.
   • 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: […]1667 June 22 (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...
   • 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.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
3. (intransitive) To appear; to manifest itself; to cause a reaction by manifesting.
   • The pain in his leg comes and goes.
   • The news came as a shock.
4. To begin (to have an opinion or feeling).
   • We came to believe that he was not so innocent after all.
   • She came to think of that country as her home.
5. To do something by chance or unintentionally.
   • Could you tell me how the document came to be discovered?
6. (intransitive) To take a position relative to something else in a sequence.
   • Which letter comes before Y? Winter comes after autumn.
7. (intransitive, often, slang, vulgar) To achieve orgasm; to cum; to ejaculate.
   • She came after a few minutes.
   • Come in me!
8. (intransitive) To become butter by being churned.
   • when butter does refuse to come1662 (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...
9. (copulative, figuratively) To approach or reach a state of being or accomplishment.
   • They came very close to leaving on time. His test scores came close to perfect.
   • One of the screws came loose, and the skateboard fell apart.
10. (figuratively) To take a particular approach or point of view in regard to something.
    • He came to SF literature a confirmed technophile, and nothing made him happier than to read a manuscript thick with imaginary gizmos and whatzits.
11. (archaic, copulative) To become, to turn out to be (often in set phrases and certain collocations).
    • Near-synonyms: become, get, go, turn, fall, grow, wax
    • come true

    Synonyms:

    become, get, go, turn, fall, grow, wax

12. (intransitive) To be supplied, or made available; to exist.
    • He's as tough as they come.
    • Our milkshakes come in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours.

Noun

come (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Coming, arrival; approach.
   • “If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.”1869, RD Blackmoore, Lorna Doone, section II
2. (slang, vulgar) Semen.
   • When a man uses a condom during sex, he takes all of his come with him, preventing her from getting pregnant.
3. (slang, vulgar) Female ejaculatory discharge.

Preposition

come

1. Used to indicate a point in time at or after which a stated event or situation occurs.
   • Leave it to settle for about three months and, come Christmas time, you'll have a delicious concoction to offer your guests.
   • Come retirement, their Social Security may turn out to be a lot less than they counted on.

Interjection

1. (dated, formal) An exclamation to express annoyance.
   • Come, come! Stop crying.
   • Come now! Things could be worse.
2. (dated, formal) An exclamation to express encouragement, or to precede a request.
   • Come, come! You can do it.
   • Come now! It won't bite you.