How to Use passerby in a Sentence

passerby

noun
  • A passerby saw the accident and stopped to help.
  • Passersby were asked if they were registered to vote.
  • Kurt asks a passerby to take our picture in front of the locks.
    — Lauren Cook, The Cut, 15 May 2018
  • Just then, a passerby noticing the artist stopped him in the plaza.
    — Roger Catlin, Smithsonian, 3 Oct. 2019
  • The passerby tried to jump start the motor home, which did not work.
    — Claire Morgan, sacbee, 26 June 2018
  • At that point, a passerby in a truck honked the horn and yelled at the dog, which ran away.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 15 Jan. 2020
  • This is a town named for a random passerby, not for a sandwich spread.
    — Ken Jennings, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Sep. 2018
  • The fire, which started on a rear deck, was noticed by a passerby.
    — Aegis Staff Report, Baltimore Sun, 18 Apr. 2024
  • From there, people shared the exact cross streets where the guy was yelling at passerby.
    — Luke Darby, GQ, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Soon the street was empty, save for a passerby who shoved the dumpster back to the curb.
    — Richard Read, Anchorage Daily News, 21 Jan. 2021
  • There were instances in which a passerby threw an egg and poured a cup of urine on workers.
    — Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2023
  • The deer was in an alfalfa field and the caller was a passerby.
    — Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 Nov. 2019
  • The passerby lost sight of the vehicle when it was parked in a shopping plaza.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 21 Apr. 2021
  • Each passerby was urged to grab a free shirt to wear inside on the convention floor.
    — Patrick Shanley, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Nov. 2019
  • Two of his bodyguards were killed, along with a passerby, in the barrage of gunfire.
    — Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, 5 July 2020
  • Colbert handed a polystyrene foam cup of tea to a passerby and added a bill to a wad in her hand.
    — Gale Holland Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2021
  • The two also asked a passerby to take a photo of the two of them together.
    — CNN, 23 Feb. 2022
  • The police told her that a passerby had found Andre lying in the street.
    — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 26 Aug. 2021
  • The false alarm started when a passerby spotted the large pooch on the top of an apartment building.
    — People Staff, PEOPLE.com, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Outside, a man held a paper 7-Eleven cup, and asked a passerby for some spare change.
    — Adam Iscoe, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2023
  • After the attack, the man walked across the street, and a passerby called 911.
    — Rob Frehse, CNN, 13 July 2022
  • The fire mostly went out on its own but a passerby stomped out the remaining embers, the video shows.
    — Christal Hayes, USA TODAY, 10 Nov. 2021
  • The Hyundai spun around and struck the vehicle of the passerby who had stopped to assist.
    — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 23 Mar. 2026
  • The man who carried out the attack in the Dutch city was injured as he was stopped by a passerby.
    — Arkansas Online, 28 Mar. 2025
  • She was discovered by a passerby and rescued by the experts.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 15 Aug. 2025
  • After he was shot the man was able to flag down a passerby who stayed with him until officers got to the scene.
    — Harry Harris, Mercury News, 26 Nov. 2025
  • He was found in a dark park by some baseball fields by a passerby on the east side of the I-5 freeway.
    — Karen Kucher, sandiegouniontribune.com, 31 May 2018
  • By 1983, a passerby could spot sheep grazing on the would-be runways.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • Leutner survived the attack and was rescued by a passerby.
    — Liam Quinn, PEOPLE, 25 Nov. 2025
  • At one point, a passerby knocked a drink onto a viewer who didn’t even turn away from the screen as the spiller apologized.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 13 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'passerby.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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