By and by

advb. phr. (and sb.) [originating app. in the use of BY prep. to denote succession (see BY prep. 25).]

  † 1.  Of a succession of (persons or things): One by one, one after another, in order: a. in place.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 267. He slouh tuenti, Þer hedes quyte & clene, he laid þam bi & bi.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 304. Ffyrst sat the god of loue … And sithyn al the remenant by and by As they were of degre.

c. 1440.  Partonope, 1929. Wyth Rybyes and Saphires by and by.

c. 1485.  in E. E. Misc. (1855), 4. The towres shal be of every [= ivory] Clene corvene by and by.

  † b.  in order or succession. Obs.

c. 1330.  Assump. Virg. (1866), 85. Vp ros oure swete ladi And kist þe apostles bi & bi.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 73. Whan William … had taken homage of barons bi & bi.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 4581. These were his wordis by and by [mot à mot].

c. 1485.  Digby Myst. (1882), III. 1911. I have gon þe stacyounes by and by.

  † 2.  On and on, continuously. Obs.

c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (A.), 4828. Gij … souȝt þat maiden bi & bi: Op and doun he ȝede hir secheinde.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 15194 (Fairf.). Folowes forþ þat ilk man al-way bi & by.

c. 1430.  Syr Gener., 4836. The knightes … So thei bare hem by and by That the host without began to fleen.

c. 1620.  Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 83. The Ivie bush the Oak claspes by and by.

  3.  Of sequence of events: † a. Straightway, immediately, directly, at once. Obs.

1407.  W. of Thorpe’s Exam., in Arb., Garner, VI. 110. Some counselled the Archbishop to burn me by and by.

1526.  Tindale, Mark i. 31. By and by [Coverdale, immediatly] the fever left her.

1586.  Cogan, Haven Health, ccxiv. (1636), 224. Ill seeds … shew not themselves by and by, but yet in processe of time they bud forth.

1611.  Bible, Luke xxi. 9. The end is not by and by.

1690.  W. Walker, Idiom. Anglo-Lat., 391. They say he will be here by and by [even now].

  4.  [With the same development of sense as in anon, presently, and F. bientôt]: Before long, presently, soon, shortly. (The usual current sense; in U.S. vulgarly by’m-by.)

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 164. Innocentius counseyleth us to say it by & by.

1549.  Olde, Erasm. Par. Thess. ii. 15. To haue slayne the Prophetes before, and byanby Christ after the Prophetes.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. iv. 109. Imbowell’d will I see thee by and by, Till then, in blood, by Noble Percie lye.

1627.  Sanderson, 12 Serm. (1637), 554. Restraining Grace may tie us now, and bye and by unloose.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 132, ¶ 4. Thee and I are to part by and by.

1825.  J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 106. Bym by; naiteral enough; there they go! all a qurrellin’.

1862.  Huxley, Lect. Wrkg. Men, 93. You may by-and-by convert single flowers into double flowers.

1884.  Sophie Swett, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 410/2. Byme-by he sort of gave up goin’ to see the other girls.

  † 5.  Of logical sequence: For that reason, therefore, as a consequence; = L. continuo. Obs.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Continuo, If he did speake foolishly, will you by and by doe more foolishly?

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 263 b. As though y^t whatsoever were unlike unto Ciceroes phrase, were by & by barbarous.

1621–31.  Laud, Sev. Serm. (1847), 96. All ‘heats’ are not by and by a furnace.

  B.  used as sb.; whence a. Procrastination; b. Time coming.

1591.  Florio, Sec. Fruites, 95. Neuer giue credite … to the by and by of England, nor to the warrant you of Scotland.

1719.  Ozell, trans. Misson’s Mem., 120. Negligences (the French call them by and by’s).

1792.  Roberts, Looker-on, No. 1. Husbanding up wise resolutions to be executed by and by. This by-and-by is a sort of phantom which seduces us on till we drop into old age.

1869.  Daily News, 4 Feb., 5/1. By the road of Bye-and-bye one arrives at the town of Never.

18[?].  S. F. Bennett, ‘There’s a land that is fairer than day.’ In the sweet by-and-by We shall meet on that beautiful shore.