COMING UPON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does coming upon mean? 

• COMING UPON (noun)
  The noun COMING UPON has 1 sense:

1. a casual meeting with a person or thing

  Familiarity information: COMING UPON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMING UPON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A casual meeting with a person or thing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

coming upon; encounter

Hypernyms ("coming upon" is a kind of...):

connection; connexion; joining (the act of bringing two things into contact (especially for communication))

 Context examples 

“I trust, Aylward,” said Sir Nigel, coming upon deck, “that the men are ready for the land. Go tell them that the boats will be for them within the hour.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Old memories were coming upon him fast, and he was stirring to them as of old he stirred to the realities of which they were the shadows.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

When I saw him that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James’s Hall I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set himself to hunt down.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The assurance of Edmund's being so soon to take orders, coming upon her like a blow that had been suspended, and still hoped uncertain and at a distance, was felt with resentment and mortification.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Whether Zambo can at last take these letters to the river, or whether I shall myself in some miraculous way carry them back with me, or, finally, whether some daring explorer, coming upon our tracks with the advantage, perhaps, of a perfected monoplane, should find this bundle of manuscript, in any case I can see that what I am writing is destined to immortality as a classic of true adventure.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As this horse approached, and as I watched for it to appear through the dusk, I remembered certain of Bessie's tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit called a Gytrash, which, in the form of horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travellers, as this horse was now coming upon me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“By the thorn of Glastonbury! ill days are coming upon Beaulieu,” said he.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your country,” said Du Guesclin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Did you not note, Alleyne, that the Lady Tiphaine did give us warning last night that danger was coming upon us?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I have in good sooth,” Alleyne answered, and then as they journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black welcome and of the fair damsel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)