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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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

"We had youth workers - even the police would sometimes come by, have fun."

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

But that will come at the expense of 228 parking spots, which are already hard to come by in the neighborhood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

With China's economy slowing and well-paying jobs in traditional sectors harder to come by, many blue-collar workers like Zhang are looking to retrain.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

Exact data for whey prices is harder to come by than for some other commodities, and historical comparisons aren’t always readily available.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026

“You look better. What happened? One night I leave you here, trapped as usual, and the next time I come by, you’re gone!”

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz

Related Words

• come over
• drop by
• drop in