come by

verb

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

   do you ever come by any old books?

Idioms and Phrases

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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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 .

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

Example Sentences

Historical precedents for such federal oversight or authority aren’t easy to come by.

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You appreciate getting the shot so much because it’s tough to come by.

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“He came by the office and assured us that there is an across-the-board prohibition on hate symbols, including swastikas and nooses,” Underwood said in a video on X.

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Such discoveries seem hard to come by in the U.S. these days.

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Such discoveries seem hard to come by in the U.S. these days.

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Related Words

• come over 
• drop by 
• drop in