come forward

phrasal 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

Moriarty said her office’s Conviction Integrity Unit was reviewing Hooper’s case when officials learned the state’s star trial witness had come forward in late July on her own to recant her testimony against Hooper and to confess to killing Prazniak and concealing her body. —Jack Dura, Twin Cities, 12 Aug. 2025

More victims have come forward after a longtime Miami chess instructor was arrested on charges of molesting a student, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday. —Milena Malaver, Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025

More Photo by David Berding/Getty Images Should that become a reality and James does hit the open market next offseason, quite a few teams could come forward with interest in signing him. —Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025

Prosecutors are more willing to take on cases where the survivor doesn’t come forward for many years, where memories have faded and there is no physical evidence to speak of, where there were only two people in a room. —Alvin Bragg, New York Daily News, 10 Aug. 2025

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