come upon


verb
  1. (intr, preposition) to meet or encounter unexpectedly: I came upon an old friend in the street today

Words Nearby come upon

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use come upon in a sentence

  • Never was a change more remarkable than that which had come upon Mrs. Collingwood.

    The Boarded-Up House | Augusta Huiell Seaman
  • It wasn't far, so we kept on, and presently it developed that we had accidentally come upon old Piegan Smith.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • She gave details of the singular mood that had come upon her with the arrival of Tony, but Tom hardly heard her.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • Happening to walk down the Rue Saint Honoré, he had come upon tragedy.

  • The name of a child that is to be born: many evils shall come upon the Jews for their sins.

Other Idioms and Phrases with come upon

come upon

see come across, def. 1; come on, def. 3.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.