释义 |
by-blow|ˈbaɪbləʊ| Also 8–9 bye-. [f. by- 2 b, c, 4.] 1. A side-blow or side-stroke: lit. and fig.
1594Barnfield Helen's Rape 67 In such a Ladie's lappe, at such a slipperie by-blow [cf. sense 3]. 1611Dekker Roar. Girle i. Wks. 1873 III. 145 How finely like a fencer my father fetches his by-blowes to hit me. 1645Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 343 Now and then a by-blow from the Pulpit. 1808Edin. Rev. XII. 52 Juvenal deals his by-blows to less prominent..characters. †2. fig. A calamity or disaster not in the main course. Obs.
1600Holland 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. a1677Barrow 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.
1595Eng. Tripe-wife (1881) 152 Not your wifes daughter, but a by-blowe..of your predecessours. 1658Ussher 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. 1708Motteux Rabelais iv. lxii, Kind Venus cur'd her beloved By-blow æneas. 1749Fielding Tom Jones viii. iv. (1840) 108/2, I thought he was a gentleman's son, thof he was a by-blow. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. iv. 612 A drab's brat, A beggar's bye-blow. †4. A blow that goes by, or misses its aim. Obs.
1639J. Clarke Parœmiologia s.v. Crudelitas, He would have made a good butcher, but for the by-blow. 1684Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 103 Now also with their by-blows, they did split the very Stones in pieces. |