to come to a certain point in the course of travel; reach one's destination.
He finally arrived in Rome.
to come to be near or present in time.
The moment to act has arrived.
to attain a position of success, power, achievement, fame, or the like.
After years of hard work, she has finally arrived in her field.
Archaic. to happen.
It arrived that the master had already departed.
to come to a certain place during or after a journey; reach a destination
(foll by at) to agree upon; reach
to arrive at a decision
to occur eventually
the moment arrived when pretence was useless
informal (of a baby) to be born
informal to attain success or gain recognition
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English a(r)riven, from Old French a(r)river, from Vulgar Latin arrīpāre (unrecorded) “to come to land,” verb derivative of Latin ad rīpam “to the riverbank”; cf. river 1
First recorded in 1920–25; from French: literally, “arrived,” noun use of past participle of arriver “to arrive”; see arrive
To arrive is to come to a destination. When you arrive in Paris, the first thing you should do is go and buy a croissant. The word arrive generally means to come to a physical destination, like a place. Make sure you arrive home on time for dinner! But it can also be less literal. You can arrive at a conclusion or a decision after much thought. You can also use arrive to mean "achieve great success," though for whatever reason, this specific usage tends to be in the past tense. If you serve champagne and caviar at a party, your snobby aunt might comment, "My dear, you’ve arrived!” In this case, arrive means to come to a place of great wealth or success.
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“The main bottleneck is really not ballots that arrive after election day. The bottleneck is ballots arriving before or on election day,” Hasen said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
The drones are equipped with thermal cameras , and can follow bears through dense vegetation until hunters or police arrive.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
The IPOs arrive amid inflation concerns and higher Treasury yields, with 3-month T-bills yielding 2.7 percentage points more than S&P 500 dividends.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
Companies without the required raw ingredients in stock must wait for the materials to arrive before production starts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
“There’s no turning back, Nell. Once you arrive in Philadelphia, you are to assume your new identity wholly. One slipup, and the entire case will be in jeopardy.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
