Word.ws English Dictionary

coming in handy

coming in handy is the present participle of come in handy.

Meaning of come in handy

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To prove to be useful or helpful.
    • Even though he doesn't really know how to use them, he keeps the tools around, figuring they might come in handy someday.

Questions about coming in handy

What is coming in handy the present participle of?
Coming in handy is the present participle of come in handy.

Words near coming in handy in the dictionary

  1. coming home by weeping cross
  2. coming home to roost
  3. coming in
  4. coming in for
  5. coming in from the cold
  6. coming in handy
  7. coming in hot
  8. coming in useful
  9. coming into
  10. coming into being
  11. coming into force

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coming in handy (page history and authors); come in handy (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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Cite this entry: “coming in handy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coming_in_handy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.