Forms: (6 buy), 6– by, bye. [Ellipt. use of prec. adj. (or adv.), when by is contrasted with main, some such word as object, road, course, part, etc., or stake, throw, being understood; the earliest quots. suggest that the subst. use had its origin in dicing phraseology. Rarely used except with prep. preceding.] Often also written BYE, q.v.
† 1. A secondary or subsidiary object, course or undertaking; a side issue; something of minor importance: chiefly contrasted with main; whence phr. To bar by and main: to prevent entirely, stop altogether. Obs.
1567. Turberv., Ovid’s Epist., 13 b. Refuseth me and all the wealth, and barres me by and maine.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 430. Alwayes haue an eye to the mayne, what so ever thou art chaunced at the buy.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), Pref. Dice players, that gaine more by the bye than by the maine.
1603. St. Trials (R.). You are fools, you are on the bye, Raleigh and I are on the main; we mean to take away the king and his cubs.
1610. Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. v. 55. Extend from some fewe Maine Angles Base lines for Boundaries … and from conuenient distances in the same, distantiate euery By.
1639. Sir R. Baker, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxliii. 3. These are but the bye; the main of his aim is at the soul.
a. 1734. North, Lives, II. 188. Neither was the main let fall, nor time lost, upon the by.
1791–1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 433/1. This critic was right in the main, but not by the by; in the general, not in the particular.
2. Phrases with a preposition: † a. At the by (see quot.). Of the by: of secondary or subsidiary importance. Obs.
1611. Florio, Massare, to play or cast at the by, at hazard or gresco.
a. 1619. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626), Pref. 3. These things being but of the By.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, II. xxxiv. (1640), 159. Religion is made of the by, it serveth some other Mistresse.
b. By the by (earlier by a by, on or upon the by): by a side way, on a side issue; as a matter of secondary or subsidiary importance, incidentally, casually, in passing. Obs. or arch. Also in predicative or complemental use (quasi-adj.): Off the main track, away from the point at issue, of secondary importance, incidental.
1615. W. Hull, Mirr. Maiestie, 98. Not intentionally, but accidentally (as we say) vpon the bye.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 85. Who ever he be that in adultery, Begets a child, he stealeth by a by.
1627. Hakewill, Apol., Pref. 10. It led them some other way, thwarting and upon the by, not directly.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. v. 377. They had something … in the favour of Friers, though brought in only by the by.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 149. If he be ask’d, though but by chance, and on the by.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. I. 605. All he does upon the By, She is not bound to Justifie.
1740. J. Clarke, Educ. Youth (ed. 3), 66. Let it be done sparingly, and by the bye.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. xlvi. 259. [Chemists] hunt, perhaps, after chimeras … and find something really valuable by the bye.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 9. You are much upon the by, to bring in your Philologicall observations.
1649. Cromwell, Lett., 13 Aug. As for the pleasures of this life, and outward business, let that be upon the bye.
1661. J. Stephens, Procurations, 67. Little else than a τὸ παρέργον a work by the by.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 222. They would not make Religion a thing by the by.
1831. Sir W. Hamilton, Discuss. (1853), 416. Tuition … lightly viewed and undertaken, as a matter of convenience, a business by the by.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem., II. IV. 240. All these matters were by the by.
c. By the by is used parenthetically, with the omission of some phrase, such as ‘it may be remarked.’ So by the way: see WAY.
1708. Swift, Bickerstaff Detect., Wks. 1755, II. I. 164. My wife’s voice, (which by the by, is pretty distinguishable).
1762. T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 183. As brother Job says, (who, by-the-bye … began to whine a little under his afflictions,) ‘Are not my days few?’
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 269. A line that’s not mine but Tom Moore’s, by-the-by.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., i. By-the-by, Martin—any message from my lady mother?
3. ? A by-current, side current.
1877. Blackmore, Erema, III. liv. 229. By running the byes of the wind, and craftily hugging the corners.
See also BYE.
