come by
Britishverb
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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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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 .
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Stop in, visit, as in Please come by whenever you're in the neighborhood . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Exact numbers of Afghan civilian deaths are harder to come by, but we know they are in the tens of thousands.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
“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
The recent government scrutiny of deals by Walter’s insurance companies seemed to come by chance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Heisenberg: Strand Larsen is a decent centre forward, but, if we assume Mateta is first choice then the Norwegian will find gametime hard to come by.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you come by that suit, exactly?”
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
