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De - Pt| English Dictionary: by the way | by the DICT Development Group |
| 3 results for by the way | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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Way \Way\, n. [OE. wey, way, AS. weg; akin to OS., D., OHG., & G. weg, Icel. vegr, Sw. v[84]g, Dan. vei, Goth. wigs, L. via, and AS. wegan to move, L. vehere to carry, Skr. vah. [root]136. Cf. {Convex}, {Inveigh}, {Vehicle}, {Vex}, {Via}, {Voyage}, {Wag}, {Wagon}, {Wee}, {Weigh}.] 1. That by, upon, or along, which one passes or processes; opportunity or room to pass; place of passing; passage; road, street, track, or path of any kind; as, they built a way to the mine. [bd]To find the way to heaven.[b8] --Shak. I shall him seek by way and eke by street. --Chaucer. The way seems difficult, and steep to scale. --Milton. The season and ways were very improper for his majesty's forces to march so great a distance. --Evelyn. 2. Length of space; distance; interval; as, a great way; a long way. And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail. --Longfellow. 3. A moving; passage; procession; journey. I prythee, now, lead the way. --Shak. 4. Course or direction of motion or process; tendency of action; advance. If that way be your walk, you have not far. --Milton. And let eternal justice take the way. --Dryden. 5. The means by which anything is reached, or anything is accomplished; scheme; device; plan. My best way is to creep under his gaberdine. --Shak. By noble ways we conquest will prepare. --Dryden. What impious ways my wishes took! --Prior. 6. Manner; method; mode; fashion; style; as, the way of expressing one's ideas. 7. Regular course; habitual method of life or action; plan of conduct; mode of dealing. [bd]Having lost the way of nobleness.[b8] --Sir. P. Sidney. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. --Prov. iii. 17. When men lived in a grander way. --Longfellow. 8. Sphere or scope of observation. --Jer. Taylor. The public ministers that fell in my way. --Sir W. Temple. 9. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct; as, to have one's way. 10. (Naut.) (a) Progress; as, a ship has way. (b) pl. The timbers on which a ship is launched. 11. pl. (Mach.) The longitudinal guides, or guiding surfaces, on the bed of a planer, lathe, or the like, along which a table or carriage moves. 12. (Law) Right of way. See below. {By the way}, in passing; apropos; aside; apart from, though connected with, the main object or subject of discourse. {By way of}, for the purpose of; as being; in character of. {Covert way}. (Fort.) See {Covered way}, under {Covered}. {In the family way}. See under {Family}. {In the way}, so as to meet, fall in with, obstruct, hinder, etc. {In the way with}, traveling or going with; meeting or being with; in the presence of. {Milky way}. (Astron.) See {Galaxy}, 1. {No way}, {No ways}. See {Noway}, {Noways}, in the Vocabulary. {On the way}, traveling or going; hence, in process; advancing toward completion; as, on the way to this country; on the way to success. {Out of the way}. See under {Out}. {Right of way} (Law), a right of private passage over another's ground. It may arise either by grant or prescription. It may be attached to a house, entry, gate, well, or city lot, as well as to a country farm. --Kent. {To be under way}, [or] {To have way} (Naut.), to be in motion, as when a ship begins to move. {To give way}. See under {Give}. {To go one's way}, [or] {To come one's way}, to go or come; to depart or come along. --Shak. {To go the way of all the earth}, to die. | |
| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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By \By\ (b[imac]), prep. [OE. bi, AS. b[c6], big, near to, by, of, from, after, according to; akin to OS. & OFries. bi, be, D. bij, OHG. b[c6], G. bei, Goth. bi, and perh. Gr. 'amfi`. E. prefix be- is orig. the same word. [root]203. See pref. {Be-}.] 1. In the neighborhood of; near or next to; not far from; close to; along with; as, come and sit by me. [1913 Webster] By foundation or by shady rivulet He sought them both. --Milton. 2. On; along; in traversing. Compare 5. Long labors both by sea and land he bore. --Dryden. By land, by water, they renew the charge. --Pope. 3. Near to, while passing; hence, from one to the other side of; past; as, to go by a church. 4. Used in specifying adjacent dimensions; as, a cabin twenty feet by forty. 5. Against. [Obs.] --Tyndale [1. Cor. iv. 4]. 6. With, as means, way, process, etc.; through means of; with aid of; through; through the act or agency of; as, a city is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take by force. Note: To the meaning of by, as denoting means or agency, belong, more or less closely, most of the following uses of the word: (a) It points out the author and producer; as, [bd]Waverley[b8], 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 the 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 deficiency; when anything is increased or diminished, it indicates the measure of increase or diminution; as, larger by a half; older by five years; to lessen by a third. (f) It expresses continuance or duration; during the course of; within the period of; as, by day, by night. (g) As soon as; not later than; near or at; -- used in expressions of time; as, by this time the sun had risen; he will be here by two o'clock. Note: In boxing the compass, by indicates a pint nearer to, or towards, the next cardinal point; as, north by east, i.e., a point towards the east from the north; northeast by east, i.e., on point nearer the east than northeast is. Note: With is used instead of by before the instrument with which anything is done; as, to beat one with a stick; the board was fastened by the carpenter with nails. But there are many words which may be regarded as means or processes, or, figuratively, as instruments; and whether with or by shall be used with them is a matter of arbitrary, and often, of unsettled usage; as, to a reduce a town by famine; to consume stubble with fire; he gained his purpose by flattery; he entertained them with a story; he distressed us with or by a recital of his sufferings. see {With}. {By all means}, most assuredly; without fail; certainly. {By and by}. (a) Close together (of place). [Obs.] [bd]Two yonge knightes liggyng [lying] by and by.[b8] --Chaucer. (b) Immediately; at once. [Obs.] [bd]When . . . persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.[b8] --Matt. xiii. 21. (c) Presently; pretty soon; before long. Note: 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 [bd]soon, and soon,[b8] that is instantly; hence, -- less emphatically, -- pretty soon, presently. {By one's self}, with only one's self near; alone; solitary. {By the bye}. See under {Bye}. {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. {By the way}, by the bye; -- used to introduce an incidental or secondary remark or subject. {Day by day}, {One by one}, {Piece by piece}, etc., each day, each one, each piece, etc., 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. Note: The common phrase good-by is equivalent to farewell, and would be better written good-bye, as it is a corruption of God be with you (b'w'ye). | |
