Citations:bye

English citations of bye

					1843
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
"Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch. But I'll offer to go, if anybody else will. When I come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend; for we used to stop and speak whenever we met. Bye, bye!"

by

1567, Tu[...]. Ovid's Epist. 13b,
Refuseth me and all the wealth, and barres me by and maine.
1610, Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. v. 55,
Extend from some fewe Maine Angls Base lines for Boundaries . . and from conuenient distances in the same, distantiate euery By.
a 1734, North, Lives, II, 188,
Neither was the main let fall, nor [...] loss, upon the by.
1791-1804, D'Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1806), 433/r,
This critic was right in the main, but not by the by; in the general, not in the particular.
a 16[1?]9, Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (16[...?]) Pref. 3,
These things being but of the By.
a 1639, W. Whateley, Prototypes, II xxxiv (1640), 159,
Religion is made of the by, it serveth some other Mistresse.
1607, Hakewill, Apol. Pref. 10,
It led them some other way, thwarting and upon the by, not directly.

buy

1580, Lyly, Enphues (Arb.) 430,
Alwayes haue an eye to the mayne, what so ever thou art chaunced at the buy.

bye

1598, Barkcley, Felic. Man (1631) Pref.,
Dice players, that gaine more by the bye than by the maine.
1603, St. Trials (R.),
You are fools, you are on the bye, Raleigh and I are on the main; we mean to take away the king and his cubs.
1639, Sir R. Bakes in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxiiii. 3,
These are but the bye; the main of his aim is at the soul.
1615, W. Hull, Mirr. Maiestie, 98,
Not intentionally, but accidentally (as we say) vpon the bye.