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come by

 
Idioms: come by


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 This usage, dating from about 1600, superseded the earlier sense of acquiring something with considerable effort.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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Antonyms: come by
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v

Definition: acquire
Antonyms: give, lose, miss


WordNet: come by
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: visit informally and spontaneously
  Synonyms: drop by, drop in

Meaning #2: obtain, especially accidentally


 
 
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Copyrights:

Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more