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product of the division of one number by another; part of a whole; segment; fragment; quotient
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the meaning of "come of"



 
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What does this expression mean: 'make his engagement known'? | Phrase "get hung about"
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the meaning of "come of" Sat May 19, 2007 20:44 pm  the meaning of "come of"
 

Hello, my friends.

I do need your help with the understanding of this extract from an article I was reading:
Quote:
At any stage of this disaster which came withing moments of being a much greater disaster the officers and crew did what had to be done

More precisely I cant get the bold part. What does "come of" mean here?

Thank you !
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the meaning of "come of" Sat May 19, 2007 22:09 pm  the meaning of "come of"
 

Hi,

In your sentence I would say that the 'of' is more closely related to 'moments'.
'Came' in this context has the idea of occurred or happened. You can say:

Within hours of hearing the news, I telephoned ...

Within days of winning the prize, she went out and ....

Within weeks of reaching his 40th birthday, he decided to ...


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the meaning of "come of" Sun May 20, 2007 11:20 am  the meaning of "come of"
 

The right phrase is not 'come of', but 'come within moments of'. Some similar expressions are:

come within an ace of something

come within an inch of something

come within a whisker of (doing) something
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the meaning of "come of" Sun May 20, 2007 21:48 pm  the meaning of "come of"
 

Hi Alan and Conchita,

thank you for helping, i appreciate that
I thing i finally caught on.
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Alex

How much upchuck would a woodchuck upchuck if a woodchuck could upchuck ?

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