by-blow
(ˈbaɪbləʊ)
Also 8–9 bye-.
[f. by- 2 b, c, 4.]
1. A side-blow or side-stroke: lit. and fig.
| 1594 Barnfield Helen's Rape 67 In such a Ladie's lappe, at such a slipperie by-blow [cf. sense 3]. 1611 Dekker Roar. Girle i. Wks. 1873 III. 145 How finely like a fencer my father fetches his by-blowes to hit me. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 343 Now and then a by-blow from the Pulpit. 1808 Edin. Rev. XII. 52 Juvenal deals his by-blows to less prominent..characters. |
† 2. fig. A calamity or disaster not in the main course. Obs.
| 1600 Holland Livy xxv. xxii. 564 So long as the Consuls, in whom rested the maine chaunce..sped well, they were the lesse troubled at these by-blowes. a 1677 Barrow Serm. on Duty to Poor, Inequality and private interest in things..were the by-blows of our fall. |
3. One who comes into the world by a side stroke; an illegitimate child, a bastard. Also fig.
| 1595 Eng. Tripe-wife (1881) 152 Not your wifes daughter, but a by-blowe..of your predecessours. 1658 Ussher Ann. 499 Ptolemei Apion, a By-blow by a Harlot. 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 8 Had not his brain been delivered of this By-blow. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. lxii, Kind Venus cur'd her beloved By-blow æneas. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones viii. iv. (1840) 108/2, I thought he was a gentleman's son, thof he was a by-blow. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. iv. 612 A drab's brat, A beggar's bye-blow. |
† 4. A blow that goes by, or misses its aim. Obs.
| 1639 J. Clarke Parœmiologia s.v. Crudelitas, He would have made a good butcher, but for the by-blow. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 103 Now also with their by-blows, they did split the very Stones in pieces. |