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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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

A precise count is hard to come by, however, as many vessels “go dark,” or turn off their transponder-like signals and radars in attempting to safely cross the strait.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026

World number one Scottie Scheffler found greens and birdies hard to come by as his bid to become the seventh player in history to complete the career Grand Slam got under way.

From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026

Skeptics fear that these companies are raising money at a euphoric moment in public markets and further returns will be hard to come by.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

Taking misoprostol alone has also become a standard treatment for unwanted pregnancies in countries where mifepristone is harder to come by.

From Slate • May 18, 2026

“We thought we’d come by to say hi.”

From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Related Words

• come over
• drop by
• drop in