Idioms for by
Origin of by
1
before 900; Middle English; Old English
bī; cognate with Dutch
bij, Old High German
bī (German
bei), Gothic
bi. See
be-
synonym study for by
11.
By,
through,
with indicate agency or means of getting something done or accomplished.
By is regularly used to denote the agent (person or force) in passive constructions:
It is done by many; destroyed by fire. It also indicates means:
Send it by airmail.
With denotes the instrument (usually consciously) employed by an agent:
He cut it with the scissors.
Through designates particularly immediate agency or instrumentality or reason or motive:
through outside aid; to yield through fear; wounded through carelessness.
Words nearby by
Definition for by (2 of 4)
by
2
or bye
[ bahy ]
/ baɪ /
interjection
goodbye: By now, come again sometime!
Origin of by
2
by shortening
Definition for by (3 of 4)
Definition for by (4 of 4)
Also
bye-.
British Dictionary definitions for by (1 of 5)
Word Origin for by
Old English
bī; related to Gothic
bi, Old High German
bī, Sanskrit
abhi to, towards
British Dictionary definitions for by (2 of 5)
by
2
the internet domain name for
Belarus
British Dictionary definitions for by (3 of 5)
by-
bye-
prefix
near
bystander
secondary or incidental
by-effect; by-election; by-path; by-product
Word Origin for by-
from
by
British Dictionary definitions for by (4 of 5)
bye
1
/ (baɪ) /
noun
sport
the situation in which a player or team in an eliminatory contest wins a preliminary round by virtue of having no opponent
golf
one or more holes of a stipulated course that are left unplayed after the match has been decided
cricket
a run scored off a ball not struck by the batsman: allotted to the team as an extra and not to the individual batsman
See also leg bye
something incidental or secondary
by the bye
incidentally; by the way: used as a sentence connector
Word Origin for bye
C16: a variant of
by
British Dictionary definitions for by (5 of 5)
bye
2
bye-bye
sentence substitute
British informal
goodbye