come-and-go
(ˌkʌmən(d)gəʊ)
[f. phr. come and go (see come v. V), partly after F. va-et-vient.]
Passing backwards and forwards. Also attrib.
| 1793 W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 6 July (1965) i. 90 Caught a little come-and-go sleep and at 7 took Coach for York. 1843 Browning Blot in' Sc. ii, The noiseless come-and-go. 1859 Trollope Bertrams ii. vii. 139 They are mostly a come-and-go class of beings, to whom the possession of furniture and the responsibilities of householding would be burdensome. 1887 A. Lang Myth, Ritual, & Relig. II. 108 There was a constant come and go of attributes. 1887 Jessopp in 19th Cent. Mar. 377 The come-and-go people who hire the country houses their owners are compelled to let. 1894 G. du Maurier Trilby I. i. 69 Others dropped in... It was a perpetual come-and-go in this particular studio between four and six in the afternoon. 1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England (1924) 95 There was plenty of life in the little goods-yard: three porter youths, a continual come and go of farm wagons bringing hay. |