Dictionary

by-blow en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbʌɪbləʊ/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English by- Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Indo-European *-eh₁- Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *blēaną Proto-West Germanic *blāan Old English blāwan Middle English blowen English blow English by-blow From by- + blow.

Meanings

1. A blow struck to the side or from the side, as in swordplay; a secondary or incidental strike of any sort.
   • Either commander took speedy advantage of it—Hopton to make a swift diversion into Sussex and capture Arundel Castle (which was but a by-blow, for in a few weeks he had lost it again). 1910, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “The Copernican Convoy,”, in Corporal Sam and Other Stories:
   • As a by-blow in the course of his relentless campaigns against Louis, Willem gained the three thrones of Britain in 1699 – but what a by-blow this proved! 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 732:
2. (slang) An illegitimate child; a child of an unknown or unmarried father.
   • The best hope has been that friends and family would talk, a hope partly realized in this discreet but perceptive memoir by his illegitimate daughter. . . . Little Mary was a by-blow and an inconvenience. 1971 August 2, Brad Darrach, “Knee-High to Ezra Pound”, in Time:
   • ‘Nay,’ said the landlady, ‘if I thought he was a gentleman's son, thof he was a bye-blow, I should behave to him in another guess manner; for many of these bye-blows come to be great men, and, as my poor first husband used to say, never affront any customer that's a gentleman.’ 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 275:
   • c. 1892, Herman Melville, "Billy Budd, Foretopman" (novella), in Herman Melville: Selected Tales and Poems, Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1950), p. 298, Yes, Billy was a foundling, a presumable bye-blow, and, evidently, no ignoble one.

Forms

Synonyms

bastard (illegitimate child)

Translations (4)

ru случа́йный уда́р (a side or accidental blow) · ru у́дар сбо́ку (a side or accidental blow) · ru внебра́чный ребёнок (an illegitimate child) · ru незаконноро́жденный ребёнок (an illegitimate child)