come what may

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come what may (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) In spite of anything that might happen; whatever may occur.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 133:

     Come what come may, / Time, and the Houre, runs through the rougheſt Day.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 56, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     If you vant a more polished sort o' feller, vell and good, have him; but vages or no vages, notice or no notice, board or no board, lodgin' or no lodgin', Sam Veller, as you took from the old inn in the Borough, sticks by you, come what may.

   • 1905–1906, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 21, in Sir Nigel, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published January 1906, →OCLC:

     [W]e are here of a set purpose and we will go forward with it, come what may.

   • 2004 September 23, Tony Karon, “Allawi Rides to Bush's Rescue”, in Time:

     Still, now the prime minister remains "on message," reiterating that the election will be held in January, come what may.

   • 2018, Fiona Aghajanian, Harrison Druery, Michael Farren, Jaywan Maxwell, Jonny Robinson, Rich Thompson, “The Goodness of Jesus”, in Yet Not I‎^[1]:

     May it be, come what may, that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus.

• anyway, no matter what, regardless (adverb)

• hold come what may

• come hell or high water
• no matter what
• be that as it may