Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COME, v.i. [pret. came, pp. come. Sax. cuman, or cwiman; Goth. cwiman, pret. cwom; D. koomen, pret. kwam; G. kommen; Sw. komma; Dan. kommer, to come. Qu. W. cam, Ir. ceim, a step. And qu. the Ar. قَامَ kauma; Heb. Ch. קום to rise, or stand erect; to set or establish; to subsist, consist, remain; to rectify, or set in order; and in Arabic, to be thick, stiff or congealed. The senses of the words appear to be very different; but we use come in the sense of rising or springing, applied to corn; the corn comes or comes up, G. keimen. So the butter comes, when it separates from the whey and becomes thick or stiff. And is not our common use of come, when we invite another to begin some act, or to move, equivalent to rise, being originally directed to persons sitting or reclining, in the Oriental manner? Coming implies moving, driving, shooting along, and so we use set; we say, to set forward; the tide sets northerly.]

1. To move towards; to advance nearer, in any manner, and from any distance. We say, the men come this way, whether riding or on foot; the wind comes from the west; the ship comes with a fine breeze; light comes from the sun. It is applicable perhaps to every thing susceptible of motion, and is opposed to go.
2. To draw nigh; to approach; to arrive; to be present; as, the time has come. Come thou and all thy house into the ark. – Gen. vii. All my time will I wait, till my change come. – Job. xiv. When shall I come and appear before God? – Ps. xlii. Then shall the end come. – Matth. xxiv. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done. – Matth. vi.
3. To advance and arrive at some state or condition; as, the ships came to action; the players came to blows; is it come to this? His sons came to honor and he knoweth it not. Job xiv. I wonder how he came to know what had been done; how did he come by his knowledge; the heir comes into possession of his estate; the man will come in time to abhor the vices of his youth, or he will come to be poor and despicable, or to poverty. In these and similar phrases, we observe the process or advance is applied to the body or to the mind, indifferently; and to persons or events.
4. To happen or fall out; as, how comes that? let come what will. Hence when followed by an object or person, with to or on, to befall; to light on. After all that has come on us for our evil deeds. Ezra ix. All things come alike to all. Eccles. ix.
5. To advance or move into view; to appear; as, blood or color comes and goes in the face. – Spenser. Shak.
6. To sprout, as plants; to spring. The corn comes or comes up. “In the coming or sprouting of malt, as it must not come too little, so it must not come too much.” Mortimer. So Bacon uses the word; and this use of it coincides nearly with the sense of קום, quom, 2 Kings xix. 26, and in the same chapter inserted in Isaiah xxxvii. 27. It is the G. keimen, Icelandic keima, to bud or germinate.
7. To become. So came I a widow. – Shak.
8. To appear or be formed, as butter; to advance or change from cream to butter; a common use of the word; as, the butter comes. – Hudibras.
9. 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. – Matth. xxi. When repeated, it sometimes expresses haste; come, come. Sometimes it expresses or introduces rebuke. As the sense of come is to move, in almost any manner, in its various applications, that sense is modified indefinitely by other words used in connection with it. Thus with words expressing approach, it denotes advancing nearer; with words expressing departure, as from, of, out of, &c., it denotes motion from, &c. To come about, to happen; to fall out; to come to pass; to arrive. How did these things come about? So the French venir à bout, to come to the end, that is to arrive. To come about, to turn; to change; to come round. The wind will come about from west to east. The ship comes about. It is applied to a change of sentiments. On better thoughts, and my urged reasons, / They are come about, and won to the true side. – B. Jonson. To come again, to return. – Gen. xxviii. Lev. xiv. To come after, to follow. – Matth. xvi. Also, to come to obtain; as, to come after a book. To come at, to reach; to arrive within reach of; to gain; to come so near as to be able to take or possess. We prize those most who are hardest to come at. To come at a true knowledge of ourselves. – Addison. Also, to come toward, as in attacking. To come away, to depart from; to leave; to issue from. To come back, to return. To come by, to pass near; a popular phrase. Also, to obtain, gain, acquire; that is, to come near at, or close. Examine how you came by all your state. – Dryden. This is not an irregular or improper use of this word. It is precisely equivalent to possess, to sit by. [See Possess.] So in Ger. bekommen, D. bekoomen, to get or obtain; the by or be prefixed. To come down, to descend. The Lord will come down on Mount Sinai. – Ex. xix. Also, to be humbled or abased. Your principalities shall come down. – Jer. xiii. Come down from thy glory. – Jer. xlviii. To come for, to come to get or obtain; to come after. To come forth, to issue or proceed from. – Gen. xv. Is. xi. Micah v. Also, to depart from; to leave. – Mark ix. Also, to come abroad. – Jer. iv. To come from, to depart from; to leave. In popular language, this phrase is equivalent to, where is his native place or former place of residence; where did this man, this animal, or this plant originate. To come home, that is, to come to home, or the house; to arrive at the dwelling. Hence, to come close; to press closely; to touch the feelings, interest, or reason. [See Home.] To come in, to enter, as into an enclosure. Also, to comply; to yield; as, come in and submit. Also, to arrive at a port, or place of rendezvous; as, the fleet has come in. Also, to become fashionable; to be brought into use. Silken garments did not come in till late. – Arbuthnot. Also, to enter as an ingredient or part of a composition. A nice sense of propriety comes in to highten the character. Also, to grow and produce; to come to maturity and yield. If the corn comes in well, we shall have a supply without importation. Crops come in light. Also, to lie carnally with. – Gen. xxxviii. To come in for, to arrive in time to take a share. Johnson says this phrase is taken from hunting, where the slow dogs take nothing. Qu. But the sense in which we now use the phrase has no reference to time or slow movement. It is, to unite with others in taking a part. The rest came in for subsidies. – Swift. To come into, to join with; to bring help. Also, and more generally, to agree to; to comply with; to unite with others in adopting; as, to come into a measure or scheme. To come near, to approach in place. Hence metaphorically, to approach in quality; to arrive at nearly the same degree in a quality, or accomplishment; to resemble. – Temple. To come nigh, is popularly used in like senses. To come no near, in seamanship, is an order to the helmsman not to steer so close to the wind. To come of, to issue from; to proceed from, as a descendant. Of Priam's royal race my mother came. – Dryden. Also, to proceed from, as an effect from a cause. This comes of judging by the eye. – L'Estrange. Whence come wars … come they not of your lusts? – James iv. To come off, to depart from; to move from on. Also, to depart or deviate from a line or point; to become wider; to dilate. – Bacon. Also, to escape; to get free. If they come off safe, call their deliverance a miracle. – Addison. Hence, to end; to arrive at the final issue; as, to come off with honor or disgrace. To come off from, to leave; to quit. – Felton. To come on, to advance; to proceed; as, come on, brave boys, night is coming on. So we say, the young man comes on well in his studies, and the phrase often denotes a prosperous advance, successful improvement. So we say of plants, they come on well, they grow or thrive – that is, they proceed. Also, to fall on; to happen to. Lest that come on you which is spoken of in the prophets. – Acts xiii. Also, to invade; to rush on. To come over, to pass above or across, or from one side to another. In distillation, to rise and pass over, as vapor. Also, to pass from one party, side or army to another; to change sides. To come out, to depart or proceed from. They shall come out with great substance. – Gen. xv. Also, to become public; to escape from concealment or privacy; to be discovered; as, the truth is come out at last. Also, to be published, as a book. The work comes out in quarto. Also, to end or come to an issue; as, how will this affair come out; he has come out well at last. Also, to appear after being clouded, and to shine; as, the sun has come out. To come out of, to issue forth, as from confinement, or a close place; to proceed or depart from. Also to issue from, as, descendants. Kings shall come out of thee. Gen. xvii. To come out with, to give publicity to; to disclose. – Boyle. To come short, to fail; not to accomplish. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Rom. iii. To come to, to consent or yield. – Swift. Also, to amount to; as, the taxes come to a large sum. Also, to recover, as from a swoon. To come together, to meet or assemble. To come to pass, to be; to happen; to fall out; to be effected. The phrase is much used in the common version of the Scriptures, but is seldom found in modern English writings. To come up, to ascend; to rise. Also, to spring; to shoot or rise above the earth, as a plant. – Bacon. Also, to come into use, as a fashion. To come up the capstern, in seamanship, is to turn it the contrary way, so as to slacken the rope about it. To come up the tackle fall, is to slacken it gently. To come up to, to approach near. Also, to amount to. Also, to advance to; to rise to. To come up with, to overtake, in following or pursuit. To come upon, to fall on; to attack or invade. To come, in futurity; to happen hereafter. In times to come. Success is yet to come. Take a lease for years to come. – Locke. Come is an intransitive verb, but the participle come is much used with the substantive verb, in the passive form. “The end of all flesh is come.” I am come, thou art come, he is come, we are come, &c. This use of the substantive verb, for have, is perhaps too well established to be rejected; but have or has should be used in such phrases. In the phrase, “come Friday, come Candlemas,” there is an ellipsis of certain words, as, when Friday shall come. Come, come, the repetition of come, expresses haste, or exhortation to hasten. Sometimes it introduces a threat.