come correct

English

Verb

come correct (third-person singular simple present comes correct, present participle coming correct, simple past came correct, past participle come correct)

1. (African-American Vernacular, intransitive) To behave properly or decently; to do the right thing.
   • 1994, “Sure Shot”, in Ill Communication, performed by Beastie Boys:

     I'm fresh like Dougie when I get my specs / And on the microphone, I come correct

   • 1999?, Vibe (volume 7, number 10, December 1999 to January 2000, page 250)

     Here, Tamar warns guys to come correct. "I won't be no ho / Just drop my clothes / And all the silly things that you're used to," she boldly sings.

   • 2006, Craig Hansen Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America, page 329:

     "Let me tell you what I found out," she confessed in words that challenged her generation to come correct on the state of its psyche, "The enemy was me. I hated me."

   • 2011, Jody Prince, Wanting to Live the Lavish Life, page 27:

     Sis, they know they have to come correct; a lot of men want to be needed by a woman, to make them feel like a man.

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “come correct v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang