America’s defence secretary ended his short Asian tour today in Tokyo by trying to calm a nervous ally.
Is it like "go to school by bus", using this method? But it is more like after finishing the job, he ended the tour.
Learn English – what does “by” mean here
meaning
Best Answer
'By' is used here more in the sense of 'with' (with an attempt to calm the allies) than in the sense of 'through the medium of'.
If you google "ended his * by", you'll find expressions with the meaning you have in mind, i.e. through the medium of, e.g.:
but also expressions using 'by' in the sense of 'with':
or
So far I have found a lot of samples corresponding to the usage in your expression but not a dictionary definition that clearly focusses on this aspect. Perhaps someone with the OED can help out.
As Edwin Ashworth says in his comment, both uses of 'ended by' could be understood as 'ended in the following way:...'