come by

British  

verb

1. (intr, preposition) to find or obtain (a thing), esp accidentally

   do you ever come by any old books?

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come by Idioms  

1. Acquire, obtain, as in A good assistant is hard to come by . This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort. A variant is come by honestly , meaning “to obtain in some honorable or logical way.” For example, I'm sure she didn't come by that large bonus honestly or He does have an unusual gait but he came by it honestly; his father's is the same .

2. Stop in, visit, as in Please come by whenever you're in the neighborhood . [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

come by

At times in 2024, when Hernandez was living with her aunt in Los Angeles, Burke would come by the home to pick the teen up for dates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

"We had youth workers - even the police would sometimes come by, have fun."

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

But it offers stability and solid benefits in an economy where both are hard to come by.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

With China's economy slowing and well-paying jobs in traditional sectors harder to come by, many blue-collar workers like Zhang are looking to retrain.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

“I had to come by for another piece of that coconut cake,” he said.

From "I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980" by Lauren Tarshis

Related Words

• come over
• drop by
• drop in