Word.ws English Dictionary

come down the pike

come down the pike verb: to emerge, come up; be about to happen; to approach or arrive on the scene; to present (itself or oneself).

Verb

come down the pike (third-person singular simple present comes down the pike, present participle coming down the pike, simple past came down the pike, past participle come down the pike)

  1. (US, person, thing) To emerge, come up; be about to happen; to approach or arrive on the scene; to present (itself or oneself).
    • "[T]hey're the finest football leaders that ever came down the pike."1902, Ralph Henry Barbour, chapter 11, in Behind the Line
    • Alfred Stieglitz was the best photographer ever to come down the pike.1949 November 14, “Art: Many Ways”, in Time, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016

Synonyms of come down the pike

Forms of come down the pike

third-person singular presentcomes down the pike
present participlecoming down the pike
pastcame down the pike
past participlecome down the pike

Origin of come down the pike

From pike, short for turnpike (“toll expressway”).

Questions about come down the pike

What does come down the pike mean?
Come down the pike means to emerge, come up; be about to happen; to approach or arrive on the scene; to present (itself or oneself).
What part of speech is come down the pike?
Come down the pike is a verb.
What is the past tense of come down the pike?
The past tense of come down the pike is came down the pike.

Words near come down the pike in the dictionary

  1. come down cats and dogs
  2. come down in stair rods
  3. come down in the last shower
  4. come down on
  5. come down the line
  6. come down the pike
  7. come down the road
  8. come down to
  9. come down to earth
  10. come down to us
  11. come down upon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come down the pike (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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