Meaning
Whatever happens, regardless of circumstances or adversity. It began as a pledge that an event or duty would hold in any weather, and the figurative use now covers any kind of uncertainty; the shorter form without 'come' is equally common, especially in American English. Warm, slightly rhetorical register, typically used in pledges of loyalty, reliability or commitment. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The underlying pairing is old: etymonline notes that shine as a noun meaning sunshine, paired with rain, dates from the 1620s. Dating the fixed formula is less tidy. Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Clichés, quoted by The Free Dictionary, says the expression was in print by 1905, citing Horace A. Vachell's novel Hill ('With me you're first, rain or shine'). Some idiom sites push a first record back to John Goad's Astro-meteorologica, usually dated 1699 (the work itself appeared in 1686), but the quotation is unreferenced in those sources and could not be verified. The extended form with subjunctive 'come', meaning 'whether rain or shine come', belongs to the early 20th century, and Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's song 'Come Rain or Come Shine' (1946) gave it lasting currency. In short: the contrast is 17th century, the cliché is documented from 1905, and older claims are unconfirmed.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- come rain or come shine
- rain or shine
- rain, hail or shine
- shine or rain
Usage Examples
- The market runs every Saturday morning, come rain or shine.
- She has driven out to her mother's village every weekend for eleven years, come rain or shine.
- Come rain or shine, this freight has to reach the coast before the thaw.