come forward

verb

came forward; come forward; coming forward; comes forward

: to make the effort required to provide information, make a claim, volunteer, etc.

No one has yet come forward to claim the reward.

Essex Police is now appealing for anyone with information or dash cam footage of the crash to come forward and help with their inquiries.

—Alex Gidden

The young woman … had come forward after six months to accuse him of assault.

—Jules De Cinque

also : to become publicly known

While the case was dropped the prosecutor says if substantial evidence came forward this case could go to a trial in the future …

—Don Granese

Examples of come forward in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The board invited comment from the public on the budget, but no one came forward. — Evy Lewis, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026

Two weeks after the triple-murder trial of Lindsay Clancy ended in a mistrial, new voices, including the lone holdout juror and Lindsay’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, are coming forward to speak out about the case. — Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2026

State prosecutors indicated that further charges could be filed as more alleged victims come forward following forensic interviews. — Nikiya Carrero, CBS News, 18 Sep. 2026

Yet, none of her medical providers came forward to say what everyone knew to be true-that this pregnancy was going to kill her. — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 16 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for come forward

• carryforward
• equatorward
• henceforward
• straightforward
• thenceforward
• shoreward

Legal Definition

come forward

intransitive verb

come for·​ward

: to make a presentation of something to the court

—usually used with with

must come forward with materials to show that there is a genuine issue of fact

—J. H. Friedenthal et al.

coming forward with the evidence