come

come to a stop [for someone or some-

thing] to stop moving or happening.

The bus finally came to a stop so I could

get off. The loud noise finally came to

a stop.

come to blows (over something) [for peo-

ple] to become increasingly angry and

begin to fight about something, usually

by striking blows, or verbally. They got

excited about the accident, but they never

actually came to blows over it. Yes, they

aren’t the kind of people who come to

blows.

come to grief to fail; to have trouble or

grief. The artist wept when her canvas

came to grief. The wedding party came

to grief when the bride passed out.

come to grips with something to face some-

thing; to comprehend something. He

found it difficult to come to grips with his

grandmother’s death.  Many students

have a hard time coming to grips with

algebra.

come to life to become alive or lively.

(Usually used in a figurative sense.)

The party came to life about midnight.

As the anesthetic wore off, the patient came

to life.

come to light to become known. Some

interesting facts about your past have just

come to light. If too many bad things

come to light, you may lose your job.

come to mind [for a thought or idea] to

enter into one’s consciousness. (Compare

this with cross someone’s mind.) Do I

know a good barber? No one comes to

mind right now. Another idea comes to

mind. Why not cut your own hair?

come to naught Go to come to nothing.

come to nothing and come to naught to

amount to nothing; to be worthless. So

all my hard work comes to nothing. Yes,

the whole project comes to naught.

come to pass to happen. (Formal.)

When did all of this come to pass?

will this event come to pass?

come to rest to stop moving. When the

car comes to rest, you can get in. The leaf

fell and came to rest at my feet.

come to terms with someone or something 1.

to come to an agreement with someone.

I finally came to terms with my lawyer

about his fee. Bob, you have to come to

terms with your father’s wishes. 2. to learn

to accept someone or something. (See

also come to grips with something.) She

had to come to terms with the loss of her

sight. It’s time you came to terms with

your boss and her unreasonable demands.

come to the fore to become prominent; to

become important. The question of

salary has now come to the fore. Since

his great showing in court, my lawyer has

really come to the fore in city politics.

come to the point and get to the point

to get to the important part (of some-

thing). He has been talking a long time.

I wish he would come to the point. Quit

wasting time! Get to the point! We are

talking about money, Bob! Come on, get to

the point.

come to the same thing Go to amount to

the same thing.

come to think of it I just remembered

[something]. Come to think of it, I

know someone who can help. I have a

screwdriver in the trunk of my car, come

to think of it.

come true [for a dream or a wish] actu-

ally to happen. When I got married, all

my dreams came true. Coming to the big

city was like having my wish come true.

come unglued to lose emotional control;

to have a mental breakdown; to break out

into tears or laughter. (Slang.) When

Sally heard the joke, she almost came

unglued. When the bank took away my

car, I came unglued and cried and cried.

come up to happen unexpectedly. (Also lit-

eral.) I’m sorry, I cannot come to your

party. Something has come up.  The

storm came up so quickly that I almost got

blown away.

come up in the world to improve one’s

status or situation in life. Since Mary

got her new job, she has really come up in

the world. A good education helped my

brother come up in the world.

come up smelling like roses to end up

looking good or respectable after being

involved in some difficult or notorious

affair. It was a nasty political campaign,

but both candidates came up smelling like

roses. I was not surprised that my con-

gressional representative came up smelling

like roses after his colleagues investigated

him.

come up with someone or something to find

or supply someone or something.

came up with a date at the last minute.

My mom is always able to come up with a

snack for me in the afternoon. I don’t

have the tool you need, but I’ll see if I can

come up with something.

come what may no matter what might

happen. I’ll be home for the holidays,

come what may. Come what may, the

mail will get delivered.

come within an ace of doing something Go

to come within an inch of doing something.

come within an inch of doing something and

come within an ace of doing something al-

most to do something; to come very close

to doing something. I came within an

inch of going into the army.  I came

within an inch of falling off the roof. She

came within an ace of buying the house.

come with the territory to be expected

under circumstances like this. (Refers to

the details and difficulties attendant to

something like the assignment of a spe-

cific sales territory to a salesperson.

When one accepts the assignment, one

accepts the problems.) There is a lot of

paperwork in this job. Oh, well, I guess it

comes with the territory. There are prob-

lems, but that comes with the territory.

comfortable as an old shoe Go to (as)

comfortable as an old shoe.

commit something to memory to memorize

something. We all committed the Get-

tysburg Address to memory. T I commit-

ted to memory the whole list of names and

numbers.

common as an old shoe Go to (as) com-

mon as an old shoe.

common as dirt Go to (as) common as

dirt.

con someone out of something to trick some-

one out of money or something of value.

(Slang.) Anne conned her little sister out

of her allowance. Dave conned me out

of my autographed baseball.

conceited as a barber ’s cat Go to (as)

conceited as a barber’s cat.

confide in someone to tell secrets or per-

sonal matters to someone. Sally always

confided in her sister Ann. She didn’t

feel that she could confide in her mother.

conk out 1. [for someone] to collapse as

from exhaustion. (Slang.) I was so tired

I just went home and conked out. I was

afraid I would conk out while I was driv-

ing. 2. [for something] to break down; to

quit running. (Slang.) My car conked

out finally. I hope my computer doesn’t

conk out.

conspicuous by one’s absence to have

one’s absence (from an event) noticed.

We missed you last night. You were con-

spicuous by your absence. How could the

bride’s father miss the wedding? He was

certainly conspicuous by his absence.

contradiction in terms a statement con-

taining a seeming contradiction. A

wealthy pauper is a contradiction in terms.

A straight-talking politician may seem

a contradiction in terms.

contrary to something in spite of something;

regardless of something. Contrary to

what you might think, I am neat and tidy.

Contrary to public opinion, my uncle is

well and healthy.

control the purse strings to be in charge

of the money in a business or a house-

hold. I control the purse strings at our

house. Mr. Williams is the treasurer. He

controls the purse strings.

cook someone’s goose to damage or ruin

someone. I cooked my own goose by not

showing up on time. Sally cooked Bob’s

goose for treating her the way he did.

cook something to perfection to cook

something perfectly. John cooked my

steak to perfection. The entire dinner

was cooked to perfection!

cook something up to plot something; to im-

provise something. (Also literal.) Mary

cooked an interesting party up at the last

minute. T Let me see if I can cook up a

way to get you some money.

cook the accounts to cheat in bookkeep-

ing; to make the accounts appear to bal-

ance when they do not. Jane was sent

to jail for cooking the accounts of her

mother’s store. It’s hard to tell whether

she really cooked the accounts or just did-

n’t know how to add.

cool as a cucumber Go to (as) cool as a

cucumber.

cool down Go to cool off.

Cool it! Calm down!; Take it easy! (Slang.)

Don’t get mad, Bob. Cool it! Cool it,

you guys! No fighting around here.

cool off and cool down 1. to lose or re-

duce heat. I wish my soup would cool

off. I’m hungry. It’ll cool down this eve-

ning, after dusk. 2. to let one’s anger die

away. I’m sorry I got angry. I’ll cool off

in a minute. Cool off, Tom. There is no

sense getting so excited. 3. to let one’s pas-

sion or love die away. TED: Is Bob still

in love with Jane? BILL: No, he’s cooled off

a lot. TED: I thought that they were

both cooling down.

cool one’s heels to wait (for someone). (In-

formal.) I spent all afternoon cooling

my heels in the waiting room while the

doctor talked on the telephone. All right.

If you can’t behave properly, just sit down

here and cool your heels until I call you.

cool someone down and cool someone off

1. to reduce someone’s anger. (Also lit-

eral.) I just stared at him while he was

yelling. I knew that would cool him down.

The coach talked to them for a long

time. That cooled them off. 2. to reduce

someone’s passion or love. When she

slapped him, that really cooled him down.

Dating Mary was too intense, so Bill

cooled himself off by dating Sally for a

while.

cool someone off Go to cool someone down.

cop a plea to plead guilty to a crime in

hopes of receiving a lighter punishment.

(Slang, especially criminal slang.) The

robber copped a plea and got only two

years in jail. When you cop a plea, it

saves the court system a lot of money.

a copycat a person who copies or mimics

what someone else does. (Usually juve-

nile. Can be preceded by be, become, seem

like, or act like.) Sally wore a pink dress

just like Mary’s. Mary called Sally a copy-

cat. Bill is such a copycat. He bought a

coat just like mine.

cost an arm and a leg to cost too much.

It cost an arm and a leg, so I didn’t buy

it. Why should a little plastic part cost

an arm and a leg?

cost a pretty penny to cost a lot of money.

I’ll bet that diamond cost a pretty

penny. You can be sure that house cost

a pretty penny. It has seven bathrooms.

cough something up to produce something

unwillingly (that someone has re-

quested). (Also literal. Informal.) All

right, Bill. Cough the stolen diamonds up

or else. Okay, okay. I’ll cough them up.

T Bill had to cough up forty dollars to pay

for the broken window.