come and go
Idioms-
Arrive and depart, either briefly or repeatedly; go to and fro. Shakespeare had it in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2:2): “He may come and go between you both.” [Late 1300s]
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Alternately appear and disappear, as in This rash is odd; it comes and goes . [Mid-1300s] Also see coming or going ; easy come, easy go .
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.
"Political alliances will come and go," the spokesperson said.
From BBC • May 4, 2026
At a dusty lot an hour outside Beijing, a steady stream of vehicles come and go for a quick battery charge -- just one node in China's rapidly expanding network of electric trucks.
From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026
The studio-adjacent neighborhood she patrols has an eclectic mix of upscale houses and block-long stretches of apartment buildings, with people moving in and out and leaving possessions on the curb as they come and go.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2026
“So, as deadlines would come and go, he struggled to get cars up to production level.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
There would be candles burning, we would watch each other’s faces come and go in the flickering, in the white flashes of jagged light from outside the windows.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
