Bȳ1, prep.
(35), prep. [A.-S. be, bī, big, near to, by, of, from, after, according to, O. Sax. & O. Fries. bī, be, Goth. & O. H. Ger. bī, N. H. Ger. bei. Cf. BE, a prefix.]
Sense 1. In the neighborhood of; near or next to; not far from; close to; along with; at; on; as, sit by me. Long labors both by sea and land he bore. Dryden. By land, by water, they renew their charge. Pope.
Sense 2. Against. [Obs.] “Though I know nothing by myself [οὐδὲν ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα].” 1 Cor. iv. 4.
Sense 3. Near to in motion, without contact or without stopping; hence, from one to the other side of; past; as, to go by a church.
Sense 4. With, as instrument, means, way, and the like; through means of; with aid of; through; with; as, a city is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take by force.
☞ To the meaning of by, as denoting means or instrument, belong, more or less closely, most of the following uses of the word: (a.) It points out the author or producer; as, Waverley, a novel by Sir W. Scott; a statue by Canova; a sonata by Beethoven. (b.) In an oath or adjuration, it indicates the being or thing appealed to as sanction; as, I affirm to you by all that is sacred; he swears by his faith as a Christian; no, by Heaven. (c.) According to; by direction, authority, or example of; after;—in such phrases as, it appears by his account; ten o’clock by my watch; to live by rule; a model to build by. (d.) At the rate of; according to the ratio or proportion of, in measure or quantity of; as, to sell cloth by the yard, milk by the quart, eggs by the dozen, meat by the pound; to board by the year. (e.) In comparison, it denotes the measure of excess or inferiority; in change, the measure of increase or diminution, &c.; as, larger by a half; older by five years; to lessen by a third. (f.) It expresses continuance or duration, as in the phrases, by day, by night. (g.) As soon as; not later than; between now and;—used in expressions of time; as, by this time the sun had risen; he will be here by two o’clock.
By and by. (a.) Immediately; at once. [Obs.] “When persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.” Matt. xiii. 21. (b.) Presently; pretty soon; before long. In this phrase, by seems to be used in the sense of nearness in time, and to be repeated for the sake of emphasis, and thus to be equivalent to “soon, and soon,” that is, instantly; hence,—less emphatically,—pretty soon, presently.—By one’s self, with only one’s self near; alone; solitary.—One by one, day by day, piece by piece, &c., each one, day, piece, &c., by itself singly or separately; each severally.—To come by, to get possession of; to obtain.—To do by, to treat, to behave toward.—To set by, to value, to esteem.—To stand by, to aid, to support.—Twenty feet by forty, &c., measuring twenty feet one way and forty the other, &c.—By the head (Naut.), having the bows lower than the stern;—said of a vessel when her head is lower in the water than her stern; if her stern is lower, she is by the stern.—By the lee, the situation of a vessel, going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.—By the run, to let go by the run, to let go altogether, instead of slacking off.—North-west by west, &c., in describing the direction or point of compass, toward the west from north-west; farther west than north-west.
☞ The common phrase good-by is equivalent to farewell, and would be better written good-by, as it is a corruption of God be with you (b’ w’ ye).