come undone
English
Verb
come undone (third-person singular simple present comes undone, present participle coming undone, simple past came undone, past participle come undone)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, undone; to become undone or unfastened.
- My shoelace came undone.
- 1965, Ervin Drake (lyrics and music), “It Was a Very Good Year”, performed by Frank Sinatra:
- It was a very good year for city girls / Who lived up the stair / With all that perfumed hair / And it came undone / When I was twenty-one
- 2007, “15 Step”, in In Rainbows, performed by Radiohead:
- You used to be alright / What happened? / Did the cat get your tongue? / Did your string come undone?
- (colloquial) To become disintegrated, to break into parts or pieces.
- Synonym: fall apart
- 1974, Donald Fagen; Walter Becker (lyrics and music), “Any Major Dude Will Tell You”, performed by Steely Dan:
- I never seen you looking so bad, my funky one / You tell me that your super fine mind has come undone
- (figuratively) To come to ruin, to fail. To lose (a person's) composture or self-control
- He came undone when his wife refused to support him.
- 2019, Eugen Damaschin, director, Moldova 89-91, Moldova: MILK Films, spoken by himself (Iurie Roșca), 01:01:09.00 from the start:
- "Ah, you Moldovans, how undone you came, you spit on holy things".
Translations
become disintegrated — See also translations at fall apart
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See also
- come unstuck