to come along
183
3.0
- phrasal verb
- /kʌm əˈlɔŋ/
:
surgir
- Now Miller was long dead, and no one new had come along to take his place.
Then COVID came along a year or so after.
- Then COVID came along a year or so after.
- When something better comes along, they will discard you.
- So yeah, Jasper came along in February of this year.
- And so the next big project that came along was the Whitey Bulger film.
- made redundant. Someone else comes along who's younger and cheaper than you,
- Like there was no, until Dave came along, a blowjob factory.
- They were street fighters who came along at a certain time.
- Then the CD comes along, starts bumping things up again.
- But still, you had the occasional album coming along and making brilliant work of.
- And the next night came along, didn't sleep again.
- And there were a number of people coming along to the meditation center.
- Anyway, the taffy screw comes along all right.
Examples
-
The right one will come along," Henry said, as if describing a potential mate.
Fiction book (2000) -
I waited for hours, hoping someone would come along and offer help.
-
Never will another like that boy come along.
-
You want to come along?
-
Alright, I got a few things I gotta do, but you can come along, I guess.
-
"Now maybe someone will come along and give you a home," he said.
Fiction book (1998) -
When something better comes along, they will discard you.
-
Gerty turned me down because somebody better came along.
-
You come along, then.
-
Come along, Azrael.
Synonyms
∞
1.4
To be seen or arrive at a place
902
2.4
To arrive and be received, for example news or donations
896
2.6
To be mentioned in a discussion
873
1.0
To come into view or become visible
526
2.3
To appear or become visible, for example when the sun shines through clouds
177
2.0
To appear after being lost or when not expected
145
2.5
To appear or happen suddenly
82
2.1
Begin to appear or become visible
22
5.2
To appear unexpectedly, like at your door, asking for help or a chance
20
2.9
To appear suddenly without warning
20
4.3
To appear suddenly, often as a problem or question
20
7.2
To appear suddenly after being hidden or not active
14
6.3
To arrive without warning and often bring good or bad results
7
4.2
Appear from a place, often suddenly
1
6.1
Suddenly appear in a place or in someone's mind and surprise people
1
5.8
To find a person or thing by chance while you are going somewhere
1
6.3
To become available to someone, often information or documents
Antonyms
How Unexpected
43
3.3
20
4.3
183
3.0
177
2.0
∞
1.4
873
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to appear or become available' is directly derivable from 'come' (to arrive or happen) combined with 'along' (onward/alongside), yielding the straightforward meaning 'arrive/turn up'. This follows a common motion-verb + particle pattern in English and is predictable for learners who know both constituents.
Etymology
Come along may come from the picture of someone or something walking into view: come means to arrive and along shows moving into the line you see. So when an opportunity 'comes along' it appears or becomes available, which is why it means 'to appear' or 'become available'.