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

So despite some people coming forward, everyone was still in that mindset. — K.j. Yossman, Variety, 13 Nov. 2026

Police began investigating Brand in 2023 after multiple women came forward with allegations of assault and abuse in a Channel 4 documentary and the Sunday Times report. — Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 12 Nov. 2026

Huang's ouster also follows a New York Times report Wednesday that five employees at Nvidia came forward alleging Huang was romantically involved with a subordinate, Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare. — Senior Editor, CBS News, 12 Nov. 2026

Following the investigation, additional women came forward with allegations against the actor that his defense attorney took issue with during the trial. — Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 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