the.com/comeuppance
Karma with better timing and a sharper sense of irony.
means A deserved punishment or outcome that finally catches up with someone who had it coming.
from Built from 'come up' plus the suffix '-ance,' turning a verb phrase into a noun — literally what 'comes up' to meet you. It surfaced in American English in the 1800s, with the sense of a fate or reckoning that rises up to confront someone, as if justice had been climbing the stairs the whole time.
- origin
- from come up, meaning to receive what is due
- first recorded
- american english, mid 1800s
- narrative role
- the payoff writers dangle for three acts
- feels best
- when deserved and witnessed by others