Word.ws English Dictionary

come calling

come calling verb: to make one's presence felt (due to large numbers, strength, qualities etc).

Verb

come calling (third-person singular simple present comes calling, present participle coming calling, simple past came calling, past participle come calling)

  1. (colloquial, figuratively) To make one's presence felt (due to large numbers, strength, qualities etc).
    • The stage came calling when a friend suggested he try out for a production of South Pacific. He got a part in the sailors' chorus and so began his acting career.2020 November 1, Alan Young, “Sean Connery obituary: From delivering milk in Fountainbridge to the definitive James Bond”, in The Scotsman
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, calling.
    • The cook Sicon and slave Getas reprise the earlier scene where they came calling to ask for materials and were sent packing.2014, Martin Revermann, The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy, page 219

Forms of come calling

third-person singular presentcomes calling
present participlecoming calling
pastcame calling
past participlecome calling

Questions about come calling

What does come calling mean?
Come calling means to make one's presence felt (due to large numbers, strength, qualities etc).
What part of speech is come calling?
Come calling is a verb.
What is the past tense of come calling?
The past tense of come calling is came calling.

Words near come calling in the dictionary

  1. come back to one's senses
  2. come before
  3. come between
  4. come by
  5. Come By Chance
  6. come calling
  7. come clean
  8. come come
  9. come correct
  10. come down
  11. come down cats and dogs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come calling (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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