by-blow

noun
/ˈbʌɪbləʊ/UK

Etymology

From by- + blow.

  1. derived from *bʰleh₁-
  2. inherited from *blēaną
  3. inherited from *blāan
  4. inherited from blāwan
  5. inherited from blowen
  6. prefixed as by-blow — “by + blow

Definitions

  1. A blow struck to the side or from the side, as in swordplay

    A blow struck to the side or from the side, as in swordplay; a secondary or incidental strike of any sort.

    • Either commander took speedy advantage of it—Hopton to make a swift diversion into Sussex and capture Arundel Castle (which was but a by-blow, for in a few weeks he had lost it again).
    • As a by-blow in the course of his relentless campaigns against Louis, Willem gained the three thrones of Britain in 1699 – but what a by-blow this proved!
  2. An illegitimate child

    An illegitimate child; a child of an unknown or unmarried father.

    • c. 1892, Herman Melville, "Billy Budd, Foretopman" (novella), in Herman Melville: Selected Tales and Poems, Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1950), p. 298, Yes, Billy was a foundling, a presumable bye-blow, and, evidently, no ignoble one.
    • The best hope has been that friends and family would talk, a hope partly realized in this discreet but perceptive memoir by his illegitimate daughter. . . . Little Mary was a by-blow and an inconvenience.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for by-blow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA