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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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

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

AI is making “A” grades easier to come by, a new study shows—and making them less useful to employers trying to size up college graduates.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026

The fires themselves killed and damaged a significant fraction of the areas’ urban tree cover — both private and public — although precise estimates are hard to come by.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026

What if he forgets he even asked me to come by in the first place?

From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Related Words

• come over
• drop by
• drop in