Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A private end; a secret purpose or design.
  • noun An incidental or subsidiary aim or object.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Private end or interest; secret purpose; selfish advantage.

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

  • noun A private end or ambition; a secret purpose or design; hidden agenda.
  • noun An incidental or subsidiary aim or objective.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From by- +‎ end.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word by-end.

Examples

  • English wealth, falling on their school and university training, makes a systematic reading of the best authors, and to the end of a knowledge how the things whereof they treat really stand: whilst pamphleteer or journalist reading for an argument for a party, or reading to write, or, at all events, for some by-end imposed on them, must read meanly and fragmentarily.

    XII. English Traits. Universities 1909

  • ” A stanza of the song of nature the Oxonian has no ear for, and he does not value the salient and curative influence of intellectual action, studious of truth, without a by-end.

    XIV. English Traits. Literature 1909

  • A stanza of the song of nature the Oxonian has no ear for, and he does not value the salient and curative influence of intellectual action, studious of truth, without a by-end.

    English Traits (1856) 1856

  • English wealth falling on their school and university training, makes a systematic reading of the best authors, and to the end of a knowledge how the things whereof they treat really stand: whilst pamphleteer or journalist reading for an argument for a party, or reading to write, or, at all events, for some by-end imposed on them, must read meanly and fragmentarily.

    English Traits (1856) 1856

  • Love of the praise of men, as a by-end in that which is good, will make a man a hypocrite when religion is in fashion and credit is to be got by it; and love of the praise of men, as a base principle in that which is evil, will make a man an apostate when religion is in disgrace, and credit is to be lost for it, as here.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721

  • Turn it from beholding vanity; let thy eye be single and not divided; let thy intentions be sincere and uniform, and look not asquint at any by-end.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

  • In every thing he did he meant well and had no by-end in view.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

  • I was not thinking of anything in particular; only there was a by-end of verse which sang itself over and over again, somewhere in the back of my brain -- "Her eyes were the eyes of a bride whom delight makes afraid, her eyes were the eyes of a bride" -- and so on, all over again, as at night a traveller may hear his train jogging through a monotonous and stiff-jointed song; and in my heart there was just hunger.

    The Cords of Vanity A Comedy of Shirking James Branch Cabell 1918

  • Christ _the end_ of your conversation, "and fear he is but a _by-end_ of mine.

    A Brief Memoir with Portions of the Diary, Letters, and Other Remains, of Eliza Southall, Late of Birmingham, England Eliza Southall

  • In the edition of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_ for 1731, the writer laments over the diminished status of his order, and states that "the clerk is oftentimes chosen rather for his poverty, to prevent a charge to the parish, than either for his virtue or skill; or else for some by-end or purpose, more than for the immediate Honour and Service of

    The Parish Clerk 1892

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.