From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcome by phrasal verb1 GET come by something to manage to get something that is rare or difficult to get How did you come by these pictures? Jobs were hard to come by.2 come by (something)VISIT to make a short visit to a place on your way to somewhere else He said he’d come by later. I’ll come by the house and get my stuff later, OK? → come→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
hard to come by• If you are so sure, a proof shouldn't be hard to come by.• Mainstream publishers complain that good circulation databases of black names are hard to come by.• New jobs often require experience which is hard to come by.• Voluntary assistance in preparing and auditing accounts could become hard to come by.• Peace is hard to come by and takes years to find, if it ever is.• Still, even in Biarritz asps are presumably hard to come by and the audience was in no mood to be critical.• If outright desire was hard to come by at City, we had our escapes.• They could have been even shorter, except encouraging signs have been so hard to come by for the Warriors this preseason.• Jobs were hard to come by then. 