Word.ws English Dictionary

the British are coming

the British are coming phrase: a warning that enemies are about and a battle is about to begin.

Phrase

the British are coming

  1. A warning that enemies are about and a battle is about to begin.
  2. A statement of impending doom.

Origin of the British are coming

From a famous line supposedly uttered by the American Paul Revere.

Questions about the British are coming

What does the British are coming mean?
The British are coming means a warning that enemies are about and a battle is about to begin.
What part of speech is the British are coming?
The British are coming is a phrase.

Words near the British are coming in the dictionary

  1. the boys
  2. The Branch
  3. the breath of life
  4. the bride at every wedding
  5. the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral
  6. the British are coming
  7. The Brothers
  8. the buck stops here
  9. the burnt child dreads the fire
  10. the burnt child fears the fire
  11. the cake is a lie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the British are coming (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-the British are coming.wav.

Cite this entry: “the British are coming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_british_are_coming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.