come by
(intr, preposition) to find or obtain (a thing), esp accidentally: do you ever come by any old books?
Words Nearby come by
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
How to use come by in a sentence
Armstrong made answer and said, "He will come by-and-by; you shall have him."
History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley | U. J. (Uriah James) JonesPoor cottagers living beside a highroad don't open too easily at this hour to a couple of come-by-chance wayfarers.
Two Sides of the Face | Arthur Thomas Quiller-CouchIt will come by-and-by and all day long, In that old quiet house I told you of: We sleep safe there.
Browning's England | Helen Archibald ClarkeBy nature, I mean simply the present state of things, whether designed by an intelligent mind, or a mere come-by-chance.
Modern Skepticism | C. J. EllicottIt was whispered about that you were a come-by-chance child, and your mother was a bad woman.
The Day of Judgment | Joseph Hocking
Other Idioms and Phrases with come by
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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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