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These are transcriptions from Sling Blade (1996):

  • Bill, I'll see you.

  • Okay. Stop back by.

What's the purpose of "by"?

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  • Which region was the speaker from? In my General American English, I wouldn’t say, “Stop back by,” although “Stop by,” and “Walk on by,” are both common. But it sounds charming.
    – Davislor
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 5:42
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    @Davislor Southern American (Redneck)
    – Ken James
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 13:36
  • @Davislor: Rural deep American South (Arkansas).
    – Flydog57
    Commented Nov 5, 2021 at 15:03

2 Answers 2

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"Stop by" is used idiomatically as a phrasal verb meaning "visit briefly", e.g. "stop by Bill's house" means "visit Bill's house briefly". (You can't really analyse "by" separately; literally, it would mean "stop next to", but that's not what is understood.)

Meanwhile, "back" here refers to returning, e.g. "Go back to Bill's house" means "go to Bill's house again, which you've been to before".

The sentence is missing a mention of any place, so it is assumed by context to be "here", most likely the speaker's house or office.

So, "Stop back by" is a short and colloquial way to say "Please visit me here again in future".

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  • 3
    I've never heard "stop back by"
    – Criticizing Israel not allowed
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 10:40
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    @user253751 Well, you have now :)
    – IMSoP
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 10:40
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    Stop by can be brief, but I'd probably describe it more as casual. So you might just be popping in to say hi, or you might visit unannounced and stay for a while. I think the "by" part might be in the sense of "on your way to somewhere else" - if you think what pass by means, and then what stop implies instead of pass, I feel like that makes sense! I haven't researched it though.
    – cactustictacs
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 11:38
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    Just fyi - Idioms such as "stop by", which combine a verb and a preposition into a phrase with a different meaning, are known as phrasal verbs
    – Caledon
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 13:28
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    @Caledon Ah, thanks, I had a feeling there was a technical term for it, but could only think of "separable verbs" in German and Dutch. :)
    – IMSoP
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 13:55
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Okay. Stop back by.

This is short for something like, "Stop back by my house". Or wherever Bill is. It's an invitation to come back and visit me again.

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  • I think OP knows what it means, and was wondering how that works grammatically. Your expanded form has the same question.
    – JDługosz
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 14:42

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