Come up in the world


see: come up , def. 4.

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  • Comeuppance

    [kuhm-uhp-uh ns] /ˌkʌmˈʌp əns/ noun, Informal. 1. deserved reward or just deserts, usually unpleasant: He finally got his comeuppance for his misbehavior. /ˌkʌmˈʌpəns/ noun 1. (informal) just retribution n. also comeupance, 1859, presumably rooted in verbal phrase come up “present oneself for judgment before a tribunal” + -ance. noun A deserved chastening, esp some event […]

  • Come up short

    verb phrase To be deficient; not add up to what it ought: Shelton slugged 15 aces, but the rest of his game came up short (1980s+)

  • Come up smelling like a rose

    verb phrase To have extraordinarily good luck; emerge from peril with profit [1950s+; fr the traditional image of the happy person who ”falls in the shitpile and comes up smelling like a rose”]

  • Come up to the wire

    verb phrase To approach the finish; come near the end: The crucial project is coming up to the wire and we’re a bit nervous [1970s+; fr the wire that marks the finish line of a race]

  • Come within an ace

    verb phrase To come very near to doing something, winning something, etc: She came within an ace of getting the world title [1704+; probably a version of the 13th-century term within ambs ace, ”very close to,” ambs ace being the lowest point in dice, two ones or snake-eyes, fr Old French fr Latin ambas as, […]


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