come to a head
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Reach a critical or decisive point
Literally: a problem or situation reaching the top of a container
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Things, however, came to a head one day when a veterinary surgeon on his rounds, in a regulation Volvo estate, was alarmed to see Noddy tearing towards him on the wrong side of the road, in hot pursuit of a Transit van.
Usually, however, the painful lump comes to a head, and there is relief when the pus bursts out, carrying with it what is left of the invading bacteria.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “come to a head” mean?
Reach a critical or decisive point Literally: a problem or situation reaching the top of a container
Is “come to a head” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.