Also 9 bye-. [f. BY- 3 c + TALK sb.]
1. Talk aside; incidental talk away from the main business, or at by-times; irrelevant speech, small talk, tittle-tattle.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 820/1. The sayde bishops bytalke … was not muche materiall.
1580. North, Plutarch, 730. Demosthenes … sought occasions in his by-talk to shew men that he was excellently well learned.
1653. Lilburn Tryed & Cast, 126. He knew, by such by-talk and impertinencies … how to take away … their reason.
1815. Scott, Guy M., iii. ‘O troth, Laird,’ continued they, during this by-talk, ‘it’s but,’ [etc.].
† 2. The object or butt of such talk; a BYWORD.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 292/1. He shalbe made a mocking stock, & a bytalk in euery mans mouth.
