come what may

English

Pronunciation

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Adverb

come what may (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) In spite of anything that might happen; whatever may occur.
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, chapter 56, in The Pickwick Papers:

     If you vant a more polished sort o' feller, vell and good, have him; but vages or no vages, notice or no notice, board or no board, lodgin' or no lodgin', Sam Veller, as you took from the old inn in the Borough, sticks by you, come what may.

   • 1906, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 21, in Sir Nigel:

     [W]e are here of a set purpose and we will go forward with it, come what may.

   • 2004 September 23, Tony Karon, “Allawi Rides to Bush's Rescue”, in Time:

     Still, now the prime minister remains "on message," reiterating that the election will be held in January, come what may.

   • 2018, Fiona Aghajanian, Harrison Druery, Michael Farren, Jaywan Maxwell, Jonny Robinson, Rich Thompson (lyrics and music), “The Goodness of Jesus”, in Yet Not I‎:

     May it be, come what may, that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus.

Synonyms

• anyway, no matter what, regardless (adverb)

Derived terms

• hold come what may

Translations

idiomatic

Arabic: مهما حصل Basque: datorrena datorrela Catalan: vingui el que haurà de venir, passi el que haurà de passar Chinese: Mandarin: 無論如何／无论如何 (zh) (wúlùnrúhé), 不管怎樣／不管怎样 (bùguǎnzěnyàng) Czech: ať se děje co se děje, buď jak buď (cs) Dutch: wat er ook gebeurt Finnish: kävi miten kävi French: advienne que pourra (fr), quoiqu’il arrive German: was auch passiert, komme, was da wolle, komme was wolle Hungarian: lesz, ami lesz (hu), bármi történjék is, akárhogy is lesz Italian: succeda quel che succeda Middle Vietnamese: lo gì sự ấy Polish: niech się dzieje, co chce Portuguese: aconteça o que acontecer Russian: будь что бу́дет (ru) (budʹ što búdet) Spanish: pase lo que pase, venga lo que venga

See also

• come hell or high water
• no matter what
• be that as it may