Word.ws English Dictionary

come knocking

come knocking verb: to arrive unanticipated and uninvited.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To arrive unanticipated and uninvited.
    • So I put up bar and shutter
      When the wind goes howling by.
      For I know when it comes knocking
      That some evil thing is nigh.1907, The Little Sister
    • So, putting all these thoughts together, what do we do when temptation comes knocking?1999, Jerry Newcombe, Kirsti Newcombe, A Way of Escape: Experiencing God's Victory Over Temptation, page 218

Forms of come knocking

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

Words formed from come knocking

Questions about come knocking

What does come knocking mean?
Come knocking means to arrive unanticipated and uninvited.
What part of speech is come knocking?
Come knocking is a verb.
What is the past tense of come knocking?
The past tense of come knocking is came knocking.

Words near come knocking in the dictionary

  1. come into one's own
  2. come into play
  3. come into the world
  4. come it
  5. come it strong
  6. come knocking
  7. come low
  8. come naturally
  9. come of
  10. come of age
  11. come off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come knocking (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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