Word.ws English Dictionary

one's ship comes in

one's ship comes in phrase: one makes or comes into possession of a significant amount of money.

Phrase

one's ship comes in

  1. (idiomatic) One makes or comes into possession of a significant amount of money.
    • I often wish I had the money the eggs and chickens bring; but, when I say so, father answers I shall when his ship comes in. When I was younger, I really thought he owned a ship, which would one day come into port.1871, The Family treasury of Sunday reading, ed. by A. Cameron (W. Arnot), page 381
    • He is heir to some property and prefers to loaf at saloons until his ship comes in. In the meantime, the wife's parents practically support her and her children.1915, Humane Advocate, page 877
  2. (idiomatic) One is successful.

Origin of one's ship comes in

Merchants used to send goods abroad on ships to be sold, receiving the money when the ships returned.

Questions about one's ship comes in

What does one's ship comes in mean?
One's ship comes in means one makes or comes into possession of a significant amount of money.
What part of speech is one's ship comes in?
One's ship comes in is a phrase.

Words near one's ship comes in in the dictionary

  1. one's own boss
  2. one's own master
  3. one's place
  4. one's race is run
  5. one's self
  6. one's ship comes in
  7. one's socks off
  8. one's stomach thinks one's throat has been cut
  9. one's teeth water
  10. one's time is one's own
  11. one's turn in the barrel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one's ship comes in (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-when one's ship comes in.ogg.

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