come upon

British  

verb

1. (intr, preposition) to meet or encounter unexpectedly

   I came upon an old friend in the street today

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come upon Idioms  

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

come upon

As colossal as it appears in photographs, it is surprisingly small when you come upon it, tucked away in its wooded setting in the Albert Einstein Science Park.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

So many people talk about how you wait for inspiration to come upon you: You wake up on a sunny day, you open the window and you’re like, “Oh, my God, I got it!”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025

He added that he has "an awful lot of sympathy for the staff members who would have had to come upon that scene and how distressing that must have been".

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025

Keep in mind: These lessons can apply to almost anybody who has come upon a significant sum — say, through an inheritance or by selling a business.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 12, 2025

If you had walked through the pleasant Tuscan countryside in the 1890’s, you might have come upon a somewhat long-haired teenage high school dropout on the road to Pavia.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• bump into
• come across