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 fines from the county’s Department of Public Health also come about a week after air quality regulators issued a series of violations due to the odor coming from the facility.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
What 250 years means: I think that with every year that passes, it’s important to do things differently, so that you can see how change can come about.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
Venture capitalist John Doerr calls them tsunamis—and they come about every 13 years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 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
She could see no way for it to come about, but Nanny and the old folks had said it, so it must be so.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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.
