Forms: 1 cyme, cime, 3 kime, keome, kume, cume, 4 cum, cumme, coome, comme, 4–5 come, com. [OE. cyme:—OTeut. type *kumi-z, vbl. abstr. f. kuman to come: cf. ryne course, byge bend, etc. Of this the mod. repr. would have been kim; but in early ME. the sb. was assimilated to the vb.]
† 1. Approach, arrival, coming. Obs.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 13. Morʓensteorra bodaþ þære sunnan cyme.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Matt. xxiv. 3. Hwylc tacun þines cymes.
c. 1205. Lay., 3962. Þe king wes gled for his kime [1275 come]. Ibid., 28141. Of þine kume [1275 keome] nis na wene.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 26. Of his cume careles.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 5319. Of his com þe king was fain. Ibid., 17920 (Gött.). Bodword of his cum to bring.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 375. The cause of his come.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, X. 246. Thair cruell com maid cowardis for to quaik.
2. Come and go: passage to and fro.
1843. Browning, Blot in ’Sc. II. The noiseless come-and-go.
1887. A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, & Relig., II. 108. There was a constant come and go of attributes.
attrib. 1887. Jessopp, in 19th Cent., March, 377. The come-and-go people who hire the country houses their owners are compelled to let.
3. Sc. ‘Growth, the act of vegetation; as There’s a come in the ground, there is a considerable degree of vegetation’ (Jamieson).
