Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Some future time or occasion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Alternative spelling of by and by.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Of course by-and-by—” There was no by-and-by, yet his belief that he had crushed the unclean habit made him feel noble and very happy.

    Chapter 4 1922

  • They walked and walked through the never-ending streets, expecting always to see it by-and-by; until they sat down at last, faint and despairing, and were rescued by a kind woman who brought them back.

    THE CHILDREN 2010

  • While we've been promising heaven in the by-and-by, people's lives have slowly unraveled in the here and now.

    Ryan J. Bell: Needed: Prophetic Voices For A Just Economy Ryan J. Bell 2011

  • While we've been promising heaven in the by-and-by, people's lives have slowly unraveled in the here and now.

    Ryan J. Bell: Needed: Prophetic Voices For A Just Economy Ryan J. Bell 2011

  • So that there was no place which was not more or less green; the footpaths were the greenest of all, for such is the nature of grass where it has once been trodden on, and by-and-by, as the summer came on, the former roads were thinly covered with the grass that had spread out from the margin.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • Slowly the cloud rises – very slowly; but by-and-by a streak of light rests on the top of the dark rocks – it widens and brightens, and at last we see Mars shining steadily in the pure blue horizon beneath… How slowly the minutes passed!

    Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast – January 8-10, 2010 | Universe Today 2010

  • But they were not spilled, and by-and-by Polychrome, who was clinging to the bow and looking straight ahead, saw a dark line before them and wondered what it was.

    Love Letters 2010

  • One witness explained that some women would “wear good clothes, the very same clothes that this witness saw them wear on Sundays and by-and-by on the following Monday they would wear other non-holiday garb such as that which they wore all week until Saturday.”

    Conversas. 2009

  • I really DO wish my parents existed in some sweet by-and-by but they don't.

    Michael Shermer: Deepakese: The Woo-Woo Master Deepak Chopra Speaks 2009

  • But if his father and benefactor would permit him to study, under his instructions, the noble art in which he himself enjoyed such a deserved reputation, the mere hope that he might by-and-by be of some use to Mr. Gray in his business, would greatly overbalance every other consideration.

    The Surgeon's Daughter 2008

Comments

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  • Although Bartleby only knows it as bye and bye. What about by-the-by, or did I make that one up?

    July 3, 2007

  • I think by-the-by means the same as by the way

    I tried spelling it bye and bye first, but did not find it. Thanks.

    July 3, 2007