COME TO

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does come to mean? 

• COME TO (verb)
  The verb COME TO has 4 senses:

1. cause to experience suddenly

2. be relevant to

3. attain

4. return to consciousness

  Familiarity information: COME TO used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COME TO (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to experience suddenly

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

come to; hit; strike

Context example:

They were struck with fear

Verb group:

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be relevant to

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

bear on; come to; concern; have to do with; pertain; refer; relate; touch; touch on

Context example:

My remark pertained to your earlier comments

Verb group:

advert; allude; touch (make a more or less disguised reference to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "come to"):

center; center on; concentrate on; focus on; revolve about; revolve around (center upon)

apply; go for; hold (be pertinent or relevant or applicable)

affect; involve; regard (connect closely and often incriminatingly)

interest; matter to (be of importance or consequence)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Attain

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

come to; strike

Context example:

The horse finally struck a pace

Hypernyms (to "come to" is one way to...):

accomplish; achieve; attain; reach (to gain with effort)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Return to consciousness

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

come to; resuscitate; revive

Context example:

She revived after the doctor gave her an injection

Hypernyms (to "come to" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Verb group:

animate; quicken; reanimate; recreate; renovate; repair; revive; revivify; vivify (give new life or energy to)

resuscitate; revive (cause to regain consciousness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

We have quite come to the conclusion that he wounded himself in his fall.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I daresay it may have come to your notice that, counterfoil of another man’s message, there may be some disinclination on the part of the officials to oblige you.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After having been rejected by a dozen magazines, they had come to rest in The Globe office.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be particularly so.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But they’ll come to it, they’ll come to it, an’ be sorry the day they was born.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The wonderful patience of the trail which comes to men who toil hard and suffer sore, and remain sweet of speech and kindly, did not come to these two men and the woman.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“I will forgive you, Agnes,” I replied, “when you come to do Steerforth justice, and to like him as well as I do.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Well, that is very decided indeed—that does seem as if—but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The wife of one of the English professors—er, if you will pardon me, Mrs. Haythorne—disappeared with some San Francisco doctor, I understood, though his name does not just now come to my lips.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)