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

The Met's investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police. —Ingrid Vasquez, People.com, 4 Apr. 2025

Thousands of men and women came forward to say they had been molested or raped by probation officials decades ago while incarcerated as children in the county’s sprawling network of juvenile halls and camps. —Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2025

Police have not yet released details about what led to the altercation and are asking anyone with information to come forward. —Jason D. Greenblatt, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Apr. 2025

Cops released a photo of Hoyos-Foronda and asked any additional victims to come forward. —Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News, 2 Apr. 2025

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