Word.ws English Dictionary

come undone

come undone verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, undone; to become undone or unfastened.

Verb

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

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, undone; to become undone or unfastened.
    • My shoelace came undone.
    • Your bandage is coming undone.
  2. (colloquial) To become disintegrated, to break into parts or pieces.
    • I never seen you looking so bad, my funky one / You tell me that your super fine mind has come undone1974, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, performed by Steely Dan
  3. (figuratively) To come to ruin, to fail; to lose one's composure or self-control.
    • He came undone when his wife refused to support him.
    • "Ah, you Moldovans, how undone you came, you spit on holy things".2019, 01:01:09.00 from the start, in Eugen Damaschin, director, Moldova 89-91, spoken by himself (Iurie Roșca), Moldova: MILK Films
    Synonyms:
    come apart

Synonyms of come undone

Forms of come undone

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

Questions about come undone

What does come undone mean?
Come undone means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, undone; to become undone or unfastened.
What part of speech is come undone?
Come undone is a verb.
What is the past tense of come undone?
The past tense of come undone is came undone.

Words near come undone in the dictionary

  1. come to time
  2. come together
  3. come too
  4. come true
  5. come under
  6. come undone
  7. come unhinged
  8. come unstuck
  9. come up
  10. come up against
  11. come up and bite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come undone (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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