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Come upon   /kəm əpˈɑn/   Listen
verb
Come  v. i.  (past came; past part. come; pres. part. coming)  
1.
To move hitherward; to draw near; to approach the speaker, or some place or person indicated; opposed to go. "Look, who comes yonder?" "I did not come to curse thee."
2.
To complete a movement toward a place; to arrive. "When we came to Rome." "Lately come from Italy."
3.
To approach or arrive, as if by a journey or from a distance. "Thy kingdom come." "The hour is coming, and now is." "So quick bright things come to confusion."
4.
To approach or arrive, as the result of a cause, or of the act of another. "From whence come wars?" "Both riches and honor come of thee!"
5.
To arrive in sight; to be manifest; to appear. "Then butter does refuse to come."
6.
To get to be, as the result of change or progress; with a predicate; as, to come untied. "How come you thus estranged?" "How come her eyes so bright?" Note: Am come, is come, etc., are frequently used instead of have come, has come, etc., esp. in poetry. The verb to be gives a clearer adjectival significance to the participle as expressing a state or condition of the subject, while the auxiliary have expresses simply the completion of the action signified by the verb. "Think not that I am come to destroy." "We are come off like Romans." "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year." Note: Come may properly be used (instead of go) in speaking of a movement hence, or away, when there is reference to an approach to the person addressed; as, I shall come home next week; he will come to your house to-day. It is used with other verbs almost as an auxiliary, indicative of approach to the action or state expressed by the verb; as, how came you to do it? Come is used colloquially, with reference to a definite future time approaching, without an auxiliary; as, it will be two years, come next Christmas; i. e., when Christmas shall come. "They were cried In meeting, come next Sunday." Come, in the imperative, is used to excite attention, or to invite to motion or joint action; come, let us go. "This is the heir; come, let us kill him." When repeated, it sometimes expresses haste, or impatience, and sometimes rebuke. "Come, come, no time for lamentation now."
To come, yet to arrive, future. "In times to come." "There's pippins and cheese to come."
To come about.
(a)
To come to pass; to arrive; to happen; to result; as, how did these things come about?
(b)
To change; to come round; as, the ship comes about. "The wind is come about." "On better thoughts, and my urged reasons, They are come about, and won to the true side."
To come abroad.
(a)
To move or be away from one's home or country. "Am come abroad to see the world."
(b)
To become public or known. (Obs.) "Neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad."
To come across, to meet; to find, esp. by chance or suddenly. "We come across more than one incidental mention of those wars." "Wagner's was certainly one of the strongest and most independent natures I ever came across."
To come after.
(a)
To follow.
(b)
To come to take or to obtain; as, to come after a book.
To come again, to return. "His spirit came again and he revived." - -
To come and go.
(a)
To appear and disappear; to change; to alternate. "The color of the king doth come and go."
(b)
(Mech.) To play backward and forward.
To come at.
(a)
To reach; to arrive within reach of; to gain; as, to come at a true knowledge of ourselves.
(b)
To come toward; to attack; as, he came at me with fury.
To come away, to part or depart.
To come between, to intervene; to separate; hence, to cause estrangement.
To come by.
(a)
To obtain, gain, acquire. "Examine how you came by all your state."
(b)
To pass near or by way of.
To come down.
(a)
To descend.
(b)
To be humbled.
To come down upon, to call to account, to reprimand. (Colloq.)
To come home.
(a)
To return to one's house or family.
(b)
To come close; to press closely; to touch the feelings, interest, or reason.
(c)
(Naut.) To be loosened from the ground; said of an anchor.
To come in.
(a)
To enter, as a town, house, etc. "The thief cometh in."
(b)
To arrive; as, when my ship comes in.
(c)
To assume official station or duties; as, when Lincoln came in.
(d)
To comply; to yield; to surrender. "We need not fear his coming in"
(e)
To be brought into use. "Silken garments did not come in till late."
(f)
To be added or inserted; to be or become a part of.
(g)
To accrue as gain from any business or investment.
(h)
To mature and yield a harvest; as, the crops come in well.
(i)
To have sexual intercourse; with to or unto.
(j)
To have young; to bring forth; as, the cow will come in next May. (U. S.)
To come in for, to claim or receive. "The rest came in for subsidies."
To come into, to join with; to take part in; to agree to; to comply with; as, to come into a party or scheme.
To come it over, to hoodwink; to get the advantage of. (Colloq.)
To come near or To come nigh, to approach in place or quality; to be equal to. "Nothing ancient or modern seems to come near it."
To come of.
(a)
To descend or spring from. "Of Priam's royal race my mother came."
(b)
To result or follow from. "This comes of judging by the eye."
To come off.
(a)
To depart or pass off from.
(b)
To get free; to get away; to escape.
(c)
To be carried through; to pass off; as, it came off well.
(d)
To acquit one's self; to issue from (a contest, etc.); as, he came off with honor; hence, substantively, a come-off, an escape; an excuse; an evasion. (Colloq.)
(e)
To pay over; to give. (Obs.)
(f)
To take place; to happen; as, when does the race come off?
(g)
To be or become after some delay; as, the weather came off very fine.
(h)
To slip off or be taken off, as a garment; to separate.
(i)
To hurry away; to get through.
To come off by, to suffer. (Obs.) "To come off by the worst."
To come off from, to leave. "To come off from these grave disquisitions."
To come on.
(a)
To advance; to make progress; to thrive.
(b)
To move forward; to approach; to supervene.
To come out.
(a)
To pass out or depart, as from a country, room, company, etc. "They shall come out with great substance."
(b)
To become public; to appear; to be published. "It is indeed come out at last."
(c)
To end; to result; to turn out; as, how will this affair come out? he has come out well at last.
(d)
To be introduced into society; as, she came out two seasons ago.
(e)
To appear; to show itself; as, the sun came out.
(f)
To take sides; to announce a position publicly; as, he came out against the tariff.
(g)
To publicly admit oneself to be homosexual.
To come out with, to give publicity to; to disclose.
To come over.
(a)
To pass from one side or place to another. "Perpetually teasing their friends to come over to them."
(b)
To rise and pass over, in distillation.
To come over to, to join.
To come round.
(a)
To recur in regular course.
(b)
To recover. (Colloq.)
(c)
To change, as the wind.
(d)
To relent.
(e)
To circumvent; to wheedle. (Colloq.)
To come short, to be deficient; to fail of attaining. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
To come to.
(a)
To consent or yield.
(b)
(Naut.) (with the accent on to) To luff; to bring the ship's head nearer the wind; to anchor.
(c)
(with the accent on to) To recover, as from a swoon.
(d)
To arrive at; to reach.
(e)
To amount to; as, the taxes come to a large sum.
(f)
To fall to; to be received by, as an inheritance.
To come to blows. See under Blow.
To come to grief. See under Grief.
To come to a head.
(a)
To suppurate, as a boil.
(b)
To mature; to culminate; as a plot.
To come to one's self, to recover one's senses.
To come to pass, to happen; to fall out.
To come to the scratch.
(a)
(Prize Fighting) To step up to the scratch or mark made in the ring to be toed by the combatants in beginning a contest; hence:
(b)
To meet an antagonist or a difficulty bravely. (Colloq.)
To come to time.
(a)
(Prize Fighting) To come forward in order to resume the contest when the interval allowed for rest is over and "time" is called; hence:
(b)
To keep an appointment; to meet expectations. (Colloq.)
To come together.
(a)
To meet for business, worship, etc.; to assemble.
(b)
To live together as man and wife.
To come true, to happen as predicted or expected.
To come under, to belong to, as an individual to a class.
To come up
(a)
to ascend; to rise.
(b)
To be brought up; to arise, as a question.
(c)
To spring; to shoot or rise above the earth, as a plant.
(d)
To come into use, as a fashion.
To come up the capstan (Naut.), to turn it the contrary way, so as to slacken the rope about it.
To come up the tackle fall (Naut.), to slacken the tackle gently.
To come up to, to rise to; to equal.
To come up with, to overtake or reach by pursuit.
To come upon.
(a)
To befall.
(b)
To attack or invade.
(c)
To have a claim upon; to become dependent upon for support; as, to come upon the town.
(d)
To light or chance upon; to find; as, to come upon hid treasure.



preposition
Upon  prep.  On; used in all the senses of that word, with which it is interchangeable. "Upon an hill of flowers." "Our host upon his stirrups stood anon." "Thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar." "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." "As I did stand my watch upon the hill." "He made a great difference between people that did rebel upon wantonness, and them that did rebel upon want." "This advantage we lost upon the invention of firearms." "Upon the whole, it will be necessary to avoid that perpetual repetition of the same epithets which we find in Homer." "He had abandoned the frontiers, retiring upon Glasgow." "Philip swore upon the Evangelists to abstain from aggression in my absence." Note: Upon conveys a more distinct notion that on carries with it of something that literally or metaphorically bears or supports. It is less employed than it used to be, on having for the most part taken its place. Some expressions formed with it belong only to old style; as, upon pity they were taken away; that is, in consequence of pity: upon the rate of thirty thousand; that is, amounting to the rate: to die upon the hand; that is, by means of the hand: he had a garment upon; that is, upon himself: the time is coming fast upon; that is, upon the present time. By the omission of its object, upon acquires an adverbial sense, as in the last two examples.
To assure upon (Law), to promise; to undertake.
To come upon. See under Come.
To take upon, to assume.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Come upon" Quotes from Famous Books



... jaunts afield we shall discover yet more. It is May, and a heavy rainstorm has caused the petals of a trillium to forget themselves and return to their primitive hue of leafy green. A month later we come upon a buttercup, one of whose sepals has grown out as a small but perfect leaf. Later still in summer we find a rose in the same surprising case, while not far off is a columbine bearing pollen on its spurs instead of its anthers. What family tie is betrayed in all this? No ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: - The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer • Various

... her despair she determined to go. Accordingly, she went forth into the fierce noontide blaze, and with almost superhuman efforts crawled to the place. But what! was it a film upon her eyes? Had blindness come upon her, or was the spring really dried up ...
— Homestead on the Hillside • Mary Jane Holmes

... good Master Pettigrue, that we owe much praise and much outpouring, and much sweet and holy contending, for this blessing which hath come upon Israel,' said he, 'but the time hath not yet arrived. There is an hour for prayer and an hour for labour. Hark ye, friend'—to one of the prisoners—'to what regiment ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle

... Gospel City! Far, far more so than the manslayer had of old in his. I daresay, even although he was delivered from the Avenger, the Hebrew refugee could not help at times dreading lest the other might come upon him secretly. I daresay, at night, on his lonely couch, he would sometimes dream of the Goel stealing beside his pillow, and he would start from his unquiet sleep at the scaring vision. Not so in the case of those who have fled to the "Gospel Refuge." They can say in sweet confidence, ...
— The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus - A Sunday book for the young • John Ross Macduff

... way o' Jim," said Deems Lennon to his wife. "See," and he pointed through the open window toward the cemetery. "I seen her before Jim's stone, beggin' on her knees an' mumblin' with her hands stretched out. She been that way a number o' times when I come upon her as I was ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various


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