come/crawl out of the woodwork

phrase

disapproving

: to appear suddenly usually because one sees an opportunity to get something for oneself

As soon as she won the lottery, people started coming out of the woodwork, asking for money.

Examples of come/crawl out of the woodwork in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Many people have come out of the woodwork and jumped on the bandwagon, which irritated me. — Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 26 Mar. 2026

Several individuals and companies are involved in managing the funds college athletes are making, and more will come out of the woodwork. — Tom Layberger, Forbes.com, 27 Feb. 2026

At local meetings, hundreds of people have voiced that sentiment, and few, if any, supporters in the community have come out of the woodwork. — Alysa Guffey, IndyStar, 12 Feb. 2026

Should more activists come out of the woodwork, bankers’ M&A dreams may finally, durably come closer to reality. — Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 27 Jan. 2026