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.
Wars come and go, Napoleon rises and falls and these two men remain prisoners of a duty neither seems capable of escaping.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
“Hitch a Ride” starts as a ballad akin to the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” but the tempo quickly picks up, and multiple guitars come and go with an organ underneath.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
"The bees now come and go and feel settled," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Tigers, so often the bastions of a physical, aggressive gameplan, have opened up, and a 13-year psychodrama that has seen almost 30 coaches come and go, might well be over too.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
I perch on one of the couches, watching people come and go.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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.
