🙄 Let's go 💡 To start working 📈 To improve 🎭 To appear 🌩️ To approach

to come on

119 3.2

Start to get better

phrasal verb
/kʌm ɑn/

: mejorar

If you're good enough, you're coming on board and you'll grow with us.

And apart from that, people have to come on their own journey with it.

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Examples

And I felt I did, and I've come on from there, and it's made me a stronger person. -

David Beckham: Infamous (2022)
And so reason is starting to come on to the scene.
And apart from that, people have to come on their own journey with it.

Cosmopolitan UK
Well, I can come on really strong.

Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013)
Families aren't driven by child protection plans and forced to undertake the work; they come on their own.

Academic text (2010)
After months of hard work, the project's progress is finally coming on nicely.
The renovations for our new office are coming on well, and we expect to move in next month.
How is your fitness plan coming on? Have you seen any improvements lately?

Synonyms

to come

vsto come on

∞ 1.1

Make progress or improve in a situation

means positive development rather than social success or simply getting along

to advance

vsto come on

417 3.4

To help something move forward or become better

describes positive development without implying active help from outside

to get on

vsto come on

279 3.2

Make progress with a project

emphasizes improving in a clearly positive way rather than steady neutral progress

to progress

vsto come on

209 2.5

Move forward or get better over time

focuses on positive improvement rather than neutral gradual change

to come along

vsto come on

125 2.9

To get better or improve over time

is identical in meaning but differs only in phrasing or wording

to shape up

vsto come on

23 3.2

Start to get better and more complete

focuses on clear positive development rather than just satisfactory change

Antonyms

decline

439 3.9

A gradual loss in amount, quality, or value

to regress

24 7.5

To return to an earlier, less developed or worse state

How Improved

to flourish

116 4.1

to recover

748 2.5

to improve

∞ 1.0

to come on

119 3.2

to pick up

165 3.0

Surface Forms

come on infinitive

came on past

coming on present participle

comes on third person singular

come on past participle

Morphology

come + on

The urging sense (e.g., 'Come on, let’s go') is partly derivable from 'come' (move toward) so learners may infer a request to move or hurry, but the exclamatory uses expressing disbelief or irritation ('Oh, come on!') are idiomatic and not directly predictable from the constituents. Because there is a clear link in some uses but other senses are metaphorical and pragmatic, the expression is best classified as partially transparent.

Etymology

Come on for improvement comes from the picture of growing or moving forward—skills come on like a plant getting stronger day by day. That's why it means 'to develop' or 'get better'.