Word.ws English Dictionary

take something as it comes

take something as it comes verb: to accept and deal with something (an event, etc.) as it occurs, with a composed state of mind.

Verb

take something as it comes (third-person singular simple present takes something as it comes, present participle taking something as it comes, simple past took something as it came, past participle taken something as it came)

  1. (idiomatic) To accept and deal with something (an event, etc.) as it occurs, with a composed state of mind.
    • take life as it comes
    • There are really no hardships if you take things as they come and make the best of them.1899 February 5, “Klondike Reminiscences”, in New York Times, page 15

Forms of take something as it comes

third-person singular presenttakes something as it comes
present participletaking something as it comes
pasttook something as it came
past participletaken something as it came

Questions about take something as it comes

What does take something as it comes mean?
Take something as it comes means to accept and deal with something (an event, etc.) as it occurs, with a composed state of mind.
What part of speech is take something as it comes?
Take something as it comes is a verb.
What is the past tense of take something as it comes?
The past tense of take something as it comes is took something as it came.

Words near take something as it comes in the dictionary

  1. take someone's name in vain
  2. take someone's part
  3. take someone's place
  4. take someone's point
  5. take someone's word for it
  6. take something as it comes
  7. take something as read
  8. take something in one's stride
  9. take something in stride
  10. take something off someone's hands
  11. take something to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take something as it comes (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-take things as they come.ogg.

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