Word.ws English Dictionary

come to a sticky end

come to a sticky end verb: to die unpleasantly due to one's actions.

Verb

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

  1. (UK, idiomatic) To die unpleasantly due to one's actions.
    • Newbery in England and Isaiah Thomas in the U.S.A. insisted that their books for children were of a high moral tone. Children had to be good in order to escape from hell, and most bad children came to a very sticky end.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 139

Forms of come to a sticky end

third-person singular presentcomes to a sticky end
present participlecoming to a sticky end
pastcame to a sticky end
past participlecome to a sticky end
alternative formmeet a sticky end

Questions about come to a sticky end

What does come to a sticky end mean?
Come to a sticky end means to die unpleasantly due to one's actions.
What part of speech is come to a sticky end?
Come to a sticky end is a verb.
What is the past tense of come to a sticky end?
The past tense of come to a sticky end is came to a sticky end.

Words near come to a sticky end in the dictionary

  1. come to
  2. come to a boil
  3. come to a close
  4. come to a head
  5. come to a stand
  6. come to a sticky end
  7. come to a stop
  8. come to an end
  9. come to anchor
  10. come to bat
  11. come to be

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come to a sticky end (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-come to a sticky end.ogg.

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