Came

//keɪm// name, noun, prep, verb, slang

name, noun, prep, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A grooved strip of metal, traditionally usually lead or brass and today sometimes stainless steel, used to hold panes of glass together in glazing.
Verb
  1. 1
    simple past of come form-of, past
  2. 2
    past participle of come colloquial, form-of, nonstandard, participle, past

    "With that army the British army, in the course of its operations, must have came in contact; and, if that were likely, (may rather if it was impossible to avoid it.) I will ask, whether, under all the circumstances of Europe[…]"

  3. 3
    simple past of cum form-of, past
Preposition
  1. 1
    Used to indicate that the following event, period, or change in state occurred in the past, after a time of waiting, enduring, or anticipation

    "Came Christmas by which, at the outset, everybody knew it would be over, and it was not over. Came June, 1915, concerning which, at the outset, he had joined with Mr. Fortune, Twyning and Harold in laughter at his own grotesque idea of the war lasting to the dramatic effect of a culminating battle on the centenary of Waterloo, and the war had lasted, and was still lasting."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
  2. 2
    A commune in Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

Antonyms

All antonyms

Example

More examples

"I didn't know where it came from."

Etymology

Etymology 1

See come.

Etymology 2

Attested from the 17th century, of unknown origin. Possibly from kame (“a ridge”). Compare Scots came (“comb”), Scots kame (“combing; a ridge”), and Middle English camet (“silver”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.