to happen upon
15
4.9
- phrasal verb
- /ˈhæpən əˈpɒn/
:
encontrarse con
- In rural Battambang Province, my interpreter, Soeum, and I happened upon a field he remembered from his youth during Khmer Rouge rule.
He's distracted and happens upon a pile of feces.
- He's distracted and happens upon a pile of feces.
- And then he happens upon this high school senior named Meg Keflezski.
- And so Bob comes along and his idea, what he eventually happens upon is a sort of middle ground.
- So they, they talk about that explicitly and say, you know, you you can't discover, you can't, you can't just sort of like happen upon your true self.
- But I'm like, I happen upon my old car like it was insane.
- We had a weekend off and I went back to Madison, WI and I happened upon a a bunch of players.
- All right, the Ukrainians happened upon this thing called the CVV one breach or hack is what it's what they call it.
- And then I happened upon a forum and in that forum there was this huge thread and it said that don't buy this product, it breaks you out.
Examples
-
Let us say, I happened upon it by chance.
-
Last night, while watching a little television before retiring, I happened upon an interview with Bing West.
Blog text (21) -
That someone just happened upon this?
-
You know, I sort of happened upon it one weekend a long time ago.
-
And then one day, we happened upon this cabin in the middle of nowhere.
-
While there, he happened upon a case dealing with the theft of a turtle.
Academic text (2011) -
Anyone who happened upon her would never mistake her for a trespasser.
Fiction book (1999) -
Sansal recalls a trip when he happened upon a small village in Satif that struck him as very exotic.
-
Hikers had happened upon the largest in situ hoard of finished bronzes ever discovered in Cyprus.
Academic text (2007) -
While hiking in the woods, I unexpectedly happened upon a beautiful waterfall.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To discover something while looking or by accident
∞
1.0
To find out about something for the first time, often by chance
442
3.2
To meet someone or find a problem unexpectedly
338
2.7
Meet someone by chance without planning
244
2.6
To find something or someone by chance
171
2.8
To find something by chance
155
3.0
To find something while searching or by chance
153
2.8
To meet someone by chance while you are out
55
2.2
To meet someone by chance in a public place
50
2.2
To find something or someone by chance
43
2.7
Find something by chance while doing something else
37
2.8
To find something by chance
32
3.7
Meet someone by chance
18
6.1
To find something or someone by accident while doing something else
10
3.9
To find something by accident
7
4.9
To find or think of something by chance
5
3.6
To find something by chance
3
5.1
Find someone or something by accident
2
5.6
To find something by chance
1
5.8
To find a person or thing by chance while you are going somewhere
To meet someone unexpectedly, often by chance
How Accidental
Surface Forms
Morphology
happen + upon
The sense 'to find or meet by chance' is directly inferable from 'happen' (to occur/occur by chance) combined with the prepositional element 'upon' (indicating encountering/on). This is a regular verb+preposition compositional pattern and thus a B1 learner who knows the constituents would very likely deduce the meaning.
Etymology
Happen upon comes from the simple image of the parts happen meaning 'to happen' and upon meaning 'to come across', so imagine walking and suddenly finding an old friend. That's why it means 'to find or meet someone or something by chance'.