Dictionary

come from en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English comen from.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
   • Most tourists in Mallorca come from England. My girlfriend comes from Sweden.
   • Thou comest from the realm without a name, […] 1822 June–July (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Triumph of Life”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 89:
   • To explain how I happened to be in England in 1974 at the time of the bombing, I better take you back to Northern Ireland, where I come from. 1993 December 12, Jim Sheridan, Terry George, In the Name of the Father, spoken by Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), distributed by Universal Pictures:
   • Hai, my son, thou hast never learned all that since thou camest from Belait (Europe). Who suckled thee? 1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter IV, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 107:
   • ACCORDING to various inscriptions about this famous temple we are told that it was erected to the memory of Ya Fei, "An Unswerving Guardian to the Heir-Apparent," of the Sung dynasty; "A Loyal-to-the-end Minister," who came from the ancient state of O-Kuo, the present Wu Ch'ang-fu of Hupei; and that it was erected by the Emperor Hsiao Tsung as an atonement for the weakness and follies of his father, Kao Tsung, toward a faithful servant of the empire who came to his untimely death through the diabolical schemes of men in high estate. Moreover, that after his death and burial, when the empire came to appreciate his great services to the people, the posthumous title of " Prince of O-Kuo" was bestowed upon his sacred memory. 1906, Frederick D. Cloud, Hangchow, the "City of Heaven", Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, →OCLC, →OL, page 53:
   • Not so much as one farthing would I take from thee, for I love a fair Saxon face like thine right well; more especially when it cometh from Locksley Town, and most especially when the man that owneth it is to marry a bonny lass on Thursday next. 1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood turns Butcher”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part second, page 48:
2. (transitive) To be derived from.
   • Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work. 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4, page 264:
3. (qualifier:slightly informal, transitive) To derive one's opinion or argument from; to take as a conceptual starting point.
   • Even though I have a more progressive philosophy, I can understand where he's coming from. There was a time in my life when it was hard for me to adapt to change, myself.

Forms

Antonyms

get at · drive at

Translations (26)

mhr шочаш (be derived from) · fi olla (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · pt vir de (be derived from) · cmn 源自 (be derived from) · fi perustaa näkemyksensä (derive one's opinions from) · vi đến từ (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · pt ver o lado de (derive one's opinions from) · pt ser de (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · cmn 以……為依據 /以……为依据 (derive one's opinions from) · es ser de (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · cmn 來自 /来自 (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · et pärit olema (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · fi polveutua (be derived from) · et pärit olema (be derived from) · pt entender (derive one's opinions from) · vi ở (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · vi quê ở (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · pt vir de (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · cmn 想法 (derive one's opinions from) · es provenir de (be derived from) · es venir de (be derived from) · cs pocházet (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · vi đến từ (be derived from) · es proceder de (be derived from) · fi tulla (have as one's birthplace or nationality) · fi tulla (be derived from)