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get by meaning and examples

2025-09-12

Meaning

"Get by" means to manage to survive or cope with a situation, often with limited resources, skills, or effort. It suggests just managing without doing especially well.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Phrasal verb

  • Verb type: Intransitive (no direct object)

  • Common patterns:

    • get by with something → survive/manage with limited resources.
    • get by on something → survive/manage with a certain amount of money, skill, or resources.

Examples of sentence structures:

  • "get by with + noun"
  • "get by on + noun"

Common Phrases

  • get by with little money
  • get by on his charm
  • just get by

Collocations

  • get by with help/support/money
  • get by on income/skills/knowledge
  • barely get by
  • manage to get by

Examples

  1. She doesn’t earn much, but she manages to get by.
  2. They had to get by on very little food during the trip.
  3. I can get by in French, but I’m not fluent.
  4. He just gets by at school without putting in much effort.
  5. Some people can get by with only a few hours of sleep.
  6. The old man gets by with the help of his neighbors.
  7. We got by without electricity for two days.
  8. She gets by on her creativity more than her experience.
  • survive
  • manage
  • cope
  • scrape by
  • make do

Antonym

  • fail
  • struggle unsuccessfully
  • break down