come from behind

1. verb To overcome a deficit to win a game or competition. Our defense is truly terrible. How else do you explain that team coming from behind to beat us? No lead is safe against the Owls—they've come from behind multiple times this season. A: "Wait, but they were down five goals." B: "I know, and they came from behind to tie the game."

2. adjective Describing a victory in which the winning team or person overcomes a deficit in order to win. In this usage, the phrase is typically hyphenated. I turned the game off when they were down 6-0, so I missed their impressive come-from-behind win! My husband is the eternal optimist. Even when his team is down 27-0 in the fourth quarter, he's still pulling for the come-from-behind win. Their come-from-behind victory is legendary because so few teams have recovered after going down 0-3 in a seven-game series.

See also: behind, come

come (up) from behind

to advance in competition; to improve one's position relative to the positions of other things or people. The horse was working hard to come up from behind. Lee was losing in the election, but he began to come from behind in the last week.

See also: behind, come

come from behind

to advance from a losing position. (Alludes to being behind in a score or in a race.) Our team came from behind to win the game. The horse I bet on came from behind and almost placed second.

See also: behind, come

come from behind

Also, come up from behind. Advance from the rear or from a losing position, as in You can expect the Mets to come from behind before the season is over, or The polls say our candidate is coming up from behind. This idiom, which originated in horse racing, was first transferred to scores in various sports and later to more general use.

See also: behind, come

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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