to come back
67
4.1
- phrasal verb
- /kʌm bæk/
- Informal
- Otherwise, don't come back at all.
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Watch on YouTubeAnd the, and the, and the answer could come back immediately.
- And the, and the, and the answer could come back immediately.
- And she just, she came back and she said, you're a logic bully.
- China always comes back and says we're not calling, they're lying.
- If I say you're a racist, what can you come back with?
- And I didn't come back with an attitude or anger or judgment.
- And the, the, the critique, a response came back to my manager Spilo, who I talked about earlier.
- And the results have come back with the resounding Nope, that's not it.
Examples
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So as a cat owner, how would you come back at, let's say that comment?
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Someone could come back at any second.
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But when they come back at us, what comes back is not one what went out.
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If Mark did something right, everyone came back with positive feedback, like a big hug from everybody.
Academic text (2013) -
So that really got me riled to come back with an answer.
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Mark: He'll just come back at me with a wisecrack.
Fiction book (1998) -
When you're prepared to apologize for what you said about my mother, you can come back, I said.
Fiction book (1997) -
When he criticized my idea, I decided to come back with a well-thought-out response.
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She always knows how to come back with a clever retort when someone makes a negative comment.
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After receiving feedback, he quickly came back with suggestions for improvement.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To say or do something as an answer to what someone says
309
1.9
Give a similar action or feeling in reply
19
6.4
To reply quickly and sharply in a clever or angry way
18
4.8
To answer quickly in a sharp, angry way
3
6.4
Answer a remark quickly in a clever or sharp way
1
9.0
To reply quickly and sharply in speech or as a counterattack
Antonyms
How Sharp
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to reach an equal score after being behind' is a straightforward metaphorical extension of 'come' (to move/arrive) + 'back' (to a previous position): learners who know both constituents can infer a return or recovery to a prior state. This motion verb + particle composition is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English patterns, so a B1 learner will likely understand this sports sense from the parts.
Etymology
Come back here is like a boomerang: a remark is thrown and a quick answer comes back at once, and the parts come and back show that return. So it means 'to reply quickly or sharply'.