Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A punishment or retribution that one deserves; one's just deserts: "It's a chance to strike back at the critical brotherhood and give each his comeuppance for evaluative sins of the past” ( Judith Crist).
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An unpleasant experience a person endures, which is viewed by others as a just retribution for bad behavior; just deserts.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an outcome (good or bad) that is well deserved
Etymologies
- From come up ("appear before a judge") + -ance. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The final comeuppance is a bit of a surprise, but I have to admit problem sloughing through the Scottish dialogue, half of which I had to read through twice.”
“If you love to hate the superrich, The Valet, a delectable comedy in which the great French actor Daniel Auteuil portrays a piggy billionaire industrialist facing his comeuppance, is a sinfully delicious bonbon," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times.”
“The Swiss miss finally recieved her comeuppance from the Japanese veteran after being up 2 breaks in the third set.”
“The idea that liberals never understood this until Bush v. Gore, and that now, finally, they are getting their righteous comeuppance, is bizzare.”
“But just before the nuptials, fate and a little comeuppance from the past threaten the happy couple's future.”
Not A Day Goes By: Summary and book reviews of Not A Day Goes By by E Lynn Harris.
“She starts off, by design, as an unsympathetic character (hence the titled comeuppance), who, like any newcomer in a Hollywood flick, not only learns to cope well enough (despite the natives) to stay in Japan and grow, but also to recommend to everyone (in a self-important interview in the back of the book) to try living overseas (I agree, of course, but one year abroad hardly makes one an authority on world travel).”
“It reminds me of that John Wayne movie where his insubordinate and rude eldest son got his comeuppance from the “old man” and old John said; “If you won’t respect your elders, you’ll sure as hell respect your betters.””
“Indeed, could not the "great vampire squid", Goldman Sachs, end up twisting on a harpoon called comeuppance?”
“He got what we politely call the comeuppance in the polls," Shriver said of the election.”
“The books don't have to be happy throughout as some sadness tends to make them more like reality, but a happy ending or, if not completely happy, at least one where the baddy gets their comeuppance is a must.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘comeuppance’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 131 more...
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Nycanthro's list
I like words. Have kept running lists for years now. If I'd been born wealthy I'd be a linguist. Or maybe a semi-reclusive yet world-weary linguist-humanitarian-hiphop-icon known for his humility a...
oaktag, backstory, homonormative, gobshite, imagineer, comeuppance, tomfoolery, ersatz, widdershins, gigajoule, oneupmanship, conniption and 40 more...
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Last Words
Endings, results, and pinnacles. The ideal here is to somehow imply the paradoxical concept of "after-endings".
consequence, aftermath, finality, outcome, postmundane, endgame, redound, cloture, bourne, meridian, memento mori, psychopomp and 72 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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catinthehat345's List
compere, reticle, colophon, miasma, eldritch, raconteur, plectrum, poltroon, vestibular, pastiche, cravat, acumen and 179 more...
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Amalgamations
Words that have been smashed together.
keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 260 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for comeuppance.
bilby "Despite the hot-tempered invective directed its way, the 'Great Satan' didn't face its comeuppance until the New Deal in the 1930s. Then, all its transgressions -- its speculative greed, its felonious insider-dealing, its cynical manipulation of popular credulity, its extravagant incompetence and seemingly limitless capacity for self-delusion -- left Wall Street truly vulnerable."
- Steve Fraser, 'Wall Street and the Return of the Repressed', 2 Oct 2008. Oct 3, 2008
chained_bear Well, actually, it was probably your list that prompted me to think "hey, isn't this Victorian?" in the first place. So whose fault is it now, huh?! ;) Apr 22, 2008
sarra mmhm, I couldn't resist confirming your suspicion, and that then led to a wondering on my part. Not quite so direct! Apr 22, 2008
chained_bear It wasn't actually a suggestion, sarra, but feel free if you choose! Apr 22, 2008
sarra 1859. I'm not sure it fits the main criterion for my list though: it's not a particularly strange or idle word, after all. I'll mull it over… Apr 22, 2008
plethora In a word?
Yes. Apr 22, 2008
vanishedone Is it worrying that I read that as an existential question? Apr 22, 2008
pterodactyl Nobody is listing whiff of scullerymaid. Why don't you? Apr 22, 2008
sionnach It does have the whiff of scullerymaid about it, don't it? Apr 21, 2008
chained_bear This has to be a Victorian-era invention. Apr 21, 2008