Also 8–9 bye-. [f. BY- 2 b, c, 4.]
1. A side-blow or side-stroke: lit. and fig.
1594. Barnfield, Helen’s Rape, 67. In such a Ladie’s lappe, at such a slipperie by-blow [cf. sense 3].
1611. Dekker, Roar. Girle, I. Wks. 1873, III. 145. How finely like a fencer my father fetches his by-blowes to hit me.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. (1851), 343. Now and then a by-blow from the Pulpit.
1808. Edin. Rev., XII. 52. Juvenal deals his by-blows to less prominent … characters.
† 2. fig. A calamity or disaster not in the main course. Obs.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXV. xxii. 564. So long as the Consuls, in whom rested the maine chaunce … sped well, they were the lesse troubled at these by-blowes.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. on Duty to Poor, Wks. 1687, I. 443. Inequality and private interest in things … were the by blows of our fall.
3. One who comes into the world by a side stroke; an illegitimate child, a bastard. Also fig.
1595. Enq. Tripe-wife (1881), 152. Not your wifes daughter, but a by-blowe … of your predecessours.
1658. Ussher, Ann., 499. Ptolemei Apion, a By-blow by a Harlot.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 8. Had not his brain been delivered of this By-blow.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. lxii. Kind Venus cur’d her beloved By-blow Æneas.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. iv. (1840), 108/2. I thought he was a gentleman’s son, thof he was a by-blow.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IV. 612. A drab’s brat, A beggar’s bye-blow.
† 4. A blow that goes by, or misses its aim. Obs.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, s.v. Crudelitas, He would have made a good butcher, but for the by-blow.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 103. Now also with their by-blows, they did split the very Stones in pieces.
