Meaning of come at | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To come to; to attend.
   obsolete
2. To enter into sexual relations with; to come on to (someone).
   obsolete
3. To get to, especially with effort or difficulty.
4. To attack (someone); to harass (someone); to challenge(someone) to a fight.
5. To accept (a situation); to agree to do; to try.
   Australia, New-Zealand, slang, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“His precise meaning was not easy to come⟳ at.”

“As I backed away, he came at me with a knife.”

“a. 2001, Paul Keating, quoted in 2001, Brett Evans, The Life and Soul of the Party: A Portrait of Modern Labor, page 17, ‘He thought he′d come⟳ at the Australian Labor Party from the left. He thought he′d tie up the Catholic Church and the East Timor constituency by coming at Labor from that quarter. That′s what it has been all about.’”

“Well I went to the recruiting office in Perth and the navy guy bailed me up first, ′cause they just come⟳ at you, like⟳ the navy guy comes at you, then the air force⟳, ′cause they′ve got to get⟳ a quota I guess⟳, and then the navy guy came at me and I told him about aviation and that I was keen on aviation and he′s off on his spiel about Sea Kings [helicopters] and all this sort⟳ of stuff and I think⟳ he might have⟳ fired guns or watched a radar or something on a boat somewhere, but he didn′t really know⟳ very much and then the army guy overheard him. He said ‘Aah. We′ve got all the helicopters, come⟳ over here.’”

“And if we got through that, they′d come⟳ at us again in February or March⟳. Even if we′d got through the parliamentary session, they′d keep⟳ coming at us.”

“Nah, mate – I'm not going to come⟳ at that again. Too risky.”

“Mr. O'Loghlen: Do you think⟳ a factory would come⟳ at that?”

“Somehow I don′t think⟳ ausadmin or news server managers at large would come⟳ at that idea.”

“[…]he would have⟳ liked to be a roving correspondent for both the ABC and the BBC, but the BBC would not come⟳ at that arrangement.”

CEFR level