come by

English

Verb

come by (third-person singular simple present comes by, present participle coming by, simple past and past participle came by)

1. (transitive) To obtain; to get, especially by chance or involuntarily.

   A loyal friend is hard to come by.  Somehow he came by a substantial fortune.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

2. (intransitive) To come near to; to pass; to visit.

   Your beau came by while you were shopping.

Translations

to get (trans.)

• French: mettre la main sur ...
• German: bekommen (de)
• Italian: trovare (it), reperire (it), rinvenire (it), imbattersi (it)
• Portuguese: encontrar (pt), pilhar (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: добыва́ть (ru) impf (dobyvátʹ), добы́ть (ru) pf (dobýtʹ), достава́ть (ru) impf (dostavátʹ), доста́ть (ru) pf (dostátʹ), получа́ть (ru) impf (polučátʹ), получи́ть (ru) pf (polučítʹ)
• Slovak: zohnať, dostať (kúpiť)
• Spanish: encontrar (es), hallar (es)

to pass or visit (intrans.)

• Czech: stavit se
• Russian: заходи́ть (ru) impf (zaxodítʹ), зайти́ (ru) pf (zajtí) (+ к (k) + dative case); загля́дывать (ru) impf (zagljádyvatʹ), загляну́ть (ru) pf (zagljanútʹ) (+ к (k) + dative case)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: visitar (es)

Interjection

come by

1. A command to a sheepdog to move clockwise around the sheep