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

The tip line, 88-CRIME, is now offering a total reward of $102,500 to anyone willing to come forward with relevant facts related to Guthrie's disappearance. —Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 21 Feb. 2026

Charges first were filed against Chubon in November 2024 after the student came forward earlier that year, when Chubon was serving as assistant principal at Mark Twain Junior High School in Modesto. —Julietta Bisharyan, Sacbee.com, 20 Feb. 2026

Talk to me, don't hide, come forward. —Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, 20 Feb. 2026

So technical solutions are going to have to be a part of this, and figuring out how to play defense against what will be a deluge of this stuff coming forward. —Ben Smith, semafor.com, 20 Feb. 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