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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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

“It was easy. The easiest happiness that I had come by in a long time,” she wrote in the memoir.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Degree apprenticeships might look to some like an attractive alternative, but the Freedom of Information data obtained by the BBC suggests they are hard to come by.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Or at least it makes enough sense: In Mr. Simon’s own words, the lyrics “would come by you so quickly that all you would get was a feeling.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

With more than 12 million people registering for 2028 Olympics tickets, even getting a chance to browse the ticket shelves was hard to come by.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

“I’m volunteering there tomorrow. If you come by, you can see the dogs. There’s this cute one you’d like.”

From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence

Related Words

• come over
• drop by
• drop in