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Glite Dictionary
to come up roses

to come up roses

2 6.0
Turn out very well for someone
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : salir bien
  • Everything's coming up roses

Examples

  • With the promotion and the new project being approved, everything is coming up roses for him.

  • Everything's coming up roses.

    Bronco Billy (1980)

  • So everything was coming up roses.

    Gypsy (1962)

  • Honey, everything's coming up roses

    Gypsy (1962)

  • It is not all coming up roses.

    Blog text (14)

  • Everything's coming up roses

    Gypsy (1962)

  • Everything's coming up roses

    Gypsy (1962)

  • It looks like everything is coming up roses for her after all the hard work she put in.

  • After a stressful few weeks, it seems like everything is coming up roses for the team now.

Antonyms

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

to go wrong
495 2.4

To fail or happen in a bad way

How Successful

to triumph
60 3.4
to come up roses
  • Informal
2 6.0
to succeed
846 2.0
to do well
520 1.2
to fail
898 1.0

Surface Forms

come up roses infinitive
coming up roses present participle
comes up roses third person singular
came up roses past
come up roses past participle

Morphology

come + up + roses

The verb phrase 'come up' conveys development or an outcome and 'roses' evokes a positive, favourable image, so there is a recognisable metaphorical link to a good result. However, the specific collocation 'come up roses' is an idiomatic metaphor that relies on cultural knowledge and is not strictly compositional, so a B1 learner who simply knows the words may not reliably infer the exact meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

The idiom come up roses may come from gardening: when plants come up from the ground as bright, beautiful roses, the result feels pleasing and lucky. So, if something comes up roses, it 'turns out very well' or is 'a success'.