come to

English

Pronunciation

• (intransitive) IPA^(key): /kʌm ˈtu/
• (transitive) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌm tu/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

come to (third-person singular simple present comes to, present participle coming to, simple past came to, past participle come to)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To recover consciousness after fainting etc.

   Synonyms: come to one's senses, come back to one's senses, come around

   She came to with the aid of smelling salts.

2. (intransitive, idiomatic, nautical) To stop a sailing vessel, especially by turning into the wind. See also come about.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I:

     The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.

3. (transitive) To total; to amount to.

   so how much does that come to?;  the bill comes to £10 each

4. (transitive) To reach; to arrive at.

   come to an end;  come to a conclusion;  come to an agreement;  come to a halt

   I don't know what the world is coming to! Everything seems so crazy these days.

   • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.

5. (transitive) To seek help from.

   You can always come to me when you're feeling sad.

6. (transitive) To devote attention to in due course; to come around to.

   I'll come to your question in a minute.

7. (transitive) To befall; to happen to; to come upon.

   Synonym: affect

   I pray no harm will come to you.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

8. (transitive, usually in present tense) To regard or specifically pertain to.

   He's the best when it comes to detective fiction.

   When it comes to remorseless criminals, this guy takes the cake.

9. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come,‎ to.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “come to”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “come to *”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• moc toe, to come, to-come, tocome