comeuppance
[kuhm-uhp-uh ns]
- deserved reward or just deserts, usually unpleasant: He finally got his comeuppance for his misbehavior.
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Origin of comeuppance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for comeuppance
Contemporary Examples
After all, the comeuppance of the Big Bad is the good part of any horror story.
J.K. Rowling Pens the Greatest Horror Story Ever: Dolores Umbridge Was RealKevin Fallon
October 31, 2014
It even has a comeuppance ending, and the bad guy is killed.
Taranto's “comeuppance” idea rests on two odd assumptions/insinuations.
Obama got his comeuppance in 2010 when the GOP won the House.
There is, at the end, no comeuppance, just a sense of the stealth poison of materiality—its psychic numbing.
Historical Examples
You young smart Alecks will get your comeuppance, muttered the man.
The Trail Boys on the PlainsJay Winthrop Allen
comeuppance
- informal just retribution
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Word Origin
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
n.
also comeupance, 1859, presumably rooted in verbal phrase come up "present oneself for judgment before a tribunal" + -ance.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper