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to come to a certain point in the course of travel; reach one’s destination:
he finally arrived in rome.
to come to be near or present in time:
the moment to act has arrived.
to attain a position of success, power, achievement, fame, or the like:
after years of hard work, she has finally arrived in her field.
archaic. to happen:
it arrived that the master had already departed.
obsolete. to reach; come to.
arrive at,

to come to a place after traveling; reach.
to attain the objective in a course or process:
to arrive at a conclusion.

a person who has swiftly gained wealth, status, success, or fame.
contemporary examples

that moment is beyond the reach of legislation, or of any punishment that arrives after the fact.
the only way to end police violence michael tomasky december 4, 2014

the french aristocrat marquis de sade once said that “it is only by way of pain one arrives at pleasure.”
the twisted sadism of ‘borgman’ alex suskind june 27, 2014

an early example comes when the ubiquitous protagonist robert langdon arrives in washington by private jet.
debunking dan brown michael baigent september 19, 2009

and as soon as he arrives, two servers at the restaurant immediately home in on him, asking for a picture.
andrew bachelor, a.k.a. king bach, is the king of vine—and comedy’s next big thing marlow stern august 28, 2013

after studying the bestseller lists, pete arrives at his own solution: the tornado ashes club.
the daily beast recommends the daily beast july 20, 2009

historical examples

sewall notes in his diary, under this same date of aug. 15, “cary arrives who had been pillaged by the pirats.”
privateering and piracy in the colonial period various

monday night: i am writing in my tent, which is to be shared with anthony when he arrives.
it happened in egypt c. n. williamson

the head-clerk always unlocks the letter-box, and brings the letters into mr. jones when he arrives.’
a city schoolgirl may baldwin

it can do nothing against him, it is only by his grace that it arrives at the truth.
the three cities trilogy, complete emile zola

should a knight haply descend from the clouds and settle on the correct square it arrives more by luck than judgment.
punch, or the london charivari, vol. 152, january 24, 1917 various

verb (intransitive)
to come to a certain place during or after a journey; reach a destination
(foll by at) to agree upon; reach: to arrive at a decision
to occur eventually: the moment arrived when pretence was useless
(informal) (of a baby) to be born
(informal) to attain success or gain recognition
v.

c.1200, “reach land, reach the end of a journey by sea,” from anglo-french ariver, old french ariver (11c.) “to come to land,” from vulgar latin -arripare “to touch the sh-r-,” from latin ad ripam “to the sh-r-,” from ad “to” (see ad-) + ripa “sh-r-” (see riparian). the original notion is of coming ash-r- after a long voyage. of journeys other than by sea, from late 14c. sense of “to come to a position or state of mind” is from late 14c. related: arrived; arriving.

verb

to successfully establish one’s position or reputation (1880s+)