to come out of the woodwork
20
7.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
salir de debajo de las piedras
- Then again, you never know who will come out of the woodwork to upset these kinds of apple carts.
- people come out of the woodwork
- just come out of the woodwork
- now coming out of the woodwork
And then just the folks started coming out of the woodwork.
- And then just the folks started coming out of the woodwork.
- And there's, there's a lot more opportunity for true artists to, to come out of the woodwork.
- Like, you have to be Kiva before things like Watsy springs up and other, you know, interesting, interesting entrepreneurs come out of the woodwork.
- You know, investors came out of the woodwork, you know, a top tier ones anointed me as someone who could pull it off.
- I get all the minorities and the LGPTQWXYS&Z;'s are coming out of the woodwork looking for trouble.
- It's I just posted today I had It's like when a deadbeat dad their kid becomes famous and they come out of the woodwork that happened with Peaches.
- So he gets picked up and suddenly all these people come out of the woodwork and, you know, like he, you know, and it all went through and it was horrible.
Examples
-
People started coming out of the woodwork to ask me stuff, to admire my plants, to admire me.
Fiction book (2002) -
It's about time the rest of Jake's crew came out of the woodwork.
-
"We had people coming out of the woodwork saying they could do it," he notes.
Academic text (1999) -
Sometimes I luck out, and a new regular customer comes out of the woodwork there.
Blog text (1) -
We knew the nuts would come out of the woodwork when that magazine article was printed.
-
They're coming out of the woodwork.
-
You'd be surprised how many people will come out of the woodwork if you ask nicely.
Blog text (18) -
It's nice that, with every article on Republican-oriented PACs, people come out of the woodwork to defend them.
Blog text (18) -
And when it passed, what came out of the woodwork was the thousands and thousands of people that he had brought joy to and inspired to become animators.
-
After I won the award, friends and acquaintances started to come out of the woodwork to congratulate me.
Synonyms
183
3.0
To appear or arrive when you do not expect it
177
2.0
To appear after being lost or when not expected
20
4.3
To appear suddenly, often as a problem or question
14
6.3
To arrive without warning and often bring good or bad results
3
3.1
To jump out suddenly from a hiding place to surprise someone
To appear again after being hidden or gone
Antonyms
How Quickly
8
3.1
- Informal
20
7.2
177
2.0
∞
1.4
873
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
come + out + of + the + woodwork
The verb phrase 'come out' transparently signals 'appear', but 'the woodwork' functions metaphorically as a hiding place, so the full sense 'appear suddenly or unexpectedly after being hidden or inactive' requires a figurative extension. Learners can often infer a basic meaning ('appear'), but the idiomatic nuance and typical usage are not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Come out of the woodwork may come from the image of insects or mice hiding in a house's woodwork and then suddenly coming out to 'appear unexpectedly'. So when people 'come out of the woodwork' they show up after being unseen.