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

Truszkowski says her client decided to come forward to U of M after learning of Moore's firing in December 2025 and his court case. —Dejanay Booth-Singleton, CBS News, 28 Feb. 2026

Rather than wait on her line tho, Sesno smartly came forward and plucked the ball out of the air before a shot could be taken. —Clark Fahrenthold, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Feb. 2026

Geivett also highlighted the school’s safety reporting systems and praised a student who came forward with information. —Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 26 Feb. 2026

On Tuesday, the family offered a $1 million reward for her return, probably in hopes of appealing to someone in the kidnapper’s orbit to come forward, a security expert surmised to CNN. —Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 26 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