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comeuppance

[ kuhm-uhp-uh ns ]
/ ˌkʌmˈʌp əns /
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noun Informal.

deserved reward or just deserts, usually unpleasant: He finally got his comeuppance for his misbehavior.

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Is It “Just Deserts” Or “Just Desserts”?Dictionary.com once featured the word comeuppance as a Word of the Day. Comeuppance is defined as “deserved reward or just deserts, usually unpleasant.” More than a few devoted users wrote in to inform us that there was a typo in the definition: just deserts should be just desserts. Were our users correct? Was an s left out of this expression by mistake? Is the phrase just …
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RELATED WORDS

retribution, due, requital, recompense

Nearby words

  1. comestible,
  2. comet,
  3. cometary,
  4. cometh,
  5. cometic,
  6. comex,
  7. comfit,
  8. comfort,
  9. comfort food,
  10. comfort letter

Origin of comeuppance

1855–60, Americanism; from phrase come up + -ance
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for comeuppance

British Dictionary definitions for comeuppance

comeuppance

/ (ˌkʌmˈʌpəns) /

noun

informal just retribution

Word Origin for comeuppance

C19: from come up (in the sense: to appear before a judge or court for judgment)
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
Word Origin and History for comeuppance

comeuppance

n.

also comeupance, 1859, presumably rooted in verbal phrase come up "present oneself for judgment before a tribunal" + -ance.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper