come about
Britishverb
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to take place; happen
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nautical to change tacks
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Also, come to pass . Happen, take place, as in How did this quarrel come about? or When did this new development come to pass? Shakespeare used the first term, first recorded in 1315, in Hamlet (5:2): “How these things came about.” The variant, dating from the late 1400s, appears often in the Bible, as in, “And it came to pass ... that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus” (Luke 2:1).
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Also, go about . In sailing, to change tack (direction), as in It's important to duck under the boom when we come about . [Mid-1500s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The abolition of slavery did not come about only because of resistance on the part of the oppressed,” he finds.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
"It just doesn't get mentioned, and I think that the actual silence is actually evidence in itself that people knew that, how those injuries had come about."
From BBC • May 11, 2026
Ironically, arbitration has come about ostensibly through willing agreement.
From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026
“A lot of fights come about because you just assume priorities are the same,” Joy says.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 14, 2026
But how could such a strange thing come about?
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
