• IPA^(key):/baɪ/, Rhymes:-aɪ
  • Homophones:bi,buy,by

  • Audio(US):

    (file)

  • Audio(General Australian):

    (file)

• (Indic)IPA^(key):/baːj/

Variant form ofby, fromOld Englishbī(“being near”).

bye (pluralbyes)

1. The position of aperson orteam in atournament orcompetition whodraws noopponent in aparticularround soadvances to the next roundunopposed, or is awardedpoints for awin in aleague table; also thephantom opponent of such a person or team.

   Craig's Crew plays thebye next week.

   • 2020, Jerry Thornton,From Darkness to Dynasty:

     The Patriots were in the unique situation of having to play 16 straight games, then have theirbye in week 17, whether they needed it or not.

2. (cricket) Anextra scored when thebatsmen takeruns after theball has passed thestriker without hittingeither thebat or the batsman.
3. (obsolete) A thing not directly aimed at; a secondary or subsidiary object, course, path, undertaking, issue, etc.
   • 1655,Thomas Fuller,The Church-history of Britain; […], London:[…] Iohn Williams […],→OCLC,(please specify |book=I to XI):

     The Synod of Dort in some points condemneth, upon theby, even the discipline of the Church of England.

   • For more quotations using this term, seeCitations:bye.
4. (Scotland) An unspecified way or place.
   • 1815, Sir Walter Scott,Guy Manneringv:

     Frank Kennedy will shew you the penalties in the act, and ye ken yoursell they used to put their run goods into the auld Place of Ellangowan upbye there.

   • 1880, W. Alexander,Johnny Gibb:

     This was lattin at me, ye ken, for inveetin the coachman an' the gamekeeper upbye.

   • 1894, David Storrar Meldrum,Margridel:

     No word of a new house-keeper downbye, Wull?

   • 1927, John Buchan,Witch Wood:

     There's a friend of yours upbye that would be blithe to see you—up the rig from the auld aik on the road to the Greenshiel.

5. (card games) Apass.

• (cricket):leg bye

bye (comparativemorebye,superlativemostbye)

1. Out of the way; remote.
   • 1765,The Parasite, page194:

     At length having gained a verybye Alley, where he thought he might enter into a Conference unnoticed by any who knew him.

   • 1797, John Henry Prince,Original letters and essays on moral and entertaining subjects, page85:

     I left Colchester at one o'clock, and had a very agreeable ride from thence to my Uncle's– It is a verybye road , I did not meet a carriage or horse all the way, which is I believe eleven or twelve miles, but however I turned this to good advantage, and availed myself of the rural ride and variegated prospects, which assisted me to meditate.

   • 2013, Captain Alexander Smith, Arthur L. Hayward,A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes, page69:

     So riding towards Cheshunt in the same county, he put into abye sort of a house, a little out of the road, in which, finding only a poor old woman bitterly weeping, and asking the reason of shedding those tears, she told him, that she was a poor widow and being somewhat indebted for rent to her landlord whe expected him every minute to come and seize what few goods she had, which would be her utter ruin.

2. Secondary; supplementary.
   • 1894, James Edwin Thorold Rogers,Eight Chapters on the History of Work and Wages, page138:

     But the two labourers of whom I am speaking had their allowances, lived on their fixed wages with the profits of theirbye labour, one being pig-killer to the village, and, therefore, always busy from Michaelmas to Lady-day, at a shilling a pig, and the offal, on which his family subsisted, wit h the produce of their small curtilage, for half the year.

   • 2012, Eileen Power, Michael Moïssey Postan,Medieval Women, page45:

     As we shall see presently the wife of a craftsman almost always worked as her husband's assistant in his trade, or if not, she often eked out the family income by some suchbye industry as brewing and spinning; sometimes she even practised a separate trade as afemme sole.

   • 2018, Victor D Lippit,Revival: Land Reform and Economic Development in China (1975), page54:

     It is the custom in some provinces to pay only according to the basic crops produced, but in others the share is calculated out of the total produce of the farm, bothbye and main products.

Shortened form ofgoodbye.

bye

1. (colloquial)Goodbye.
3. (African-American Vernacular,slang)An exclamation ofdisbelief ordismissal.

   Synonyms:get out of here;see alsoThesaurus:bullshit

   • 2015, Amir Abrams,Diva Rules, Dafina Books,→ISBN, page151:

     “Okay, busted. But you see all them muscles, girl?” She shakes her head, laughing. “Nope. I only have eyes for my boo.” “Girl,bye. You can still look.” She giggles. “Well, I ain’t lookin’ hard, trust. […]”

   • 2016 August 7, Susan Edelman, C.J. Sullivan, Bruce Golding, “Trump supporter’s sign gets torched”, inNew York Post‎^[1], New York, N.Y.:News Corp,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on2022-12-05:

     Rowlings-Blake responded: "Girlbye, if he can't take criticism from 'a joke', what's he gonna do when somebody real comes for him? #notready"

   • 2021 February 18, @mi55fatima,Twitter‎^[2], archived fromthe original on20 July 2023:

     Her jeans don't even got the loops for her damn belt LMFAObye 😭

   • 2021 December 20, @kplightning,Twitter‎^[3], archived fromthe original on20 July 2023:

     "i wish to get back a couple of katycats that left my side"bye did she really say this..its so sad i love her sm 😢😔

   • 2023 July 11, @KimcastCares,Twitter‎^[4], archived fromthe original on20 July 2023:

     "I just want Johnny to leave me alone." Girl,bye. Control your lap dog.

• → Afrikaans:baai
• → Greenlandic:baj
• → Faroese:bei
• → Icelandic:bæ

bye (pluralbyes)

1. Eye dialect spelling ofboy.
   • 1883, Rose Garfield Clemens, “Pat and the Pig”, inBallou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, volume58, page383:

     "So what shall I do, now, Patric? Can you think of any plan? "Bedad!" said Pat , as he scratched his head , “ I'm the verybye that can."

   • 1887, “Pat's Love Episode”, inParry's Monthly Magazine, volume 3, page252:

     'Och,' sez I, 'there's many abye that's lonely livin' rite wid his friends an' naybors. Sure an' I'm lonesome mesilf.'

   • 1903,Our Young People - Volume 12, page51:

     There abye has his hand toorn off, and there abye loses his eyesight complately, and over yan abye has his joogular vein torn wid a whistlin' boom, and forninst that is thebye who thinks his gun isn't loaded and kills his little sisther.

   • 1907,International Molders' and Foundry Workers' Journal, page545:

     In thim days thebye who wint to work in the foundhry to learn the thrade, in goin' into the shop in the morning would meet a big, ruffneck boss wit his blue faunel shirt on and his schleeves rolled up to his ilbows, who could show him the mishtakes he made the day befoor, if he made any.

   • 1920, Marjorie Benton Cooke,The Girl who Lived in the Woods, page184:

     I know a nicebye who's goin' to git two cookies fer thim worrds.

   • 2012, Robert Craig Brown,Illustrated History of Canada, page224:

     Hardy, weatherbeaten, intimately familiar with the winds and tides of his local shore, capable of turning his hand to many things, squeezing a hard living from the treacherous sea—a figure rendered familiar by the words “Ise thebye who builds the boat / And ise thebye that sails her / Ise thebye who catches the fish / And takes them home to Liza."

Alternative forms.

bye

1. Obsolete spelling ofby.

bye

1. Obsolete spelling ofbee.

• beddy-bye,sleepy-bye

• Bey,Eby,bey

bye

1. plural ofby

Borrowed fromEnglishbye.

• IPA^(key):/baj/

• Audio:

  (file)

bye !

1. bye

   Allezbye ! À la revoyure.

   Bye then! See you later.

FromEnglishbye.

• IPA^(key):/baj/

bye

1. bye,goodbye

• alvida
• orevwar

bye

1. A ring ortorque; abracelet.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory,Le Morte Darthur, Book VII:

     And Kynge Arthure gaff hir a rychebye of golde; and so she departed.

     (pleaseadd an English translation of this quotation)

bye

1. Alternative form ofboye
   • 1440,Promptorium Parvulorum, section 35:

     Bye orboye:Bostio.

• IPA^(key):/²byː.ə/

bye f orm (definite singularbyaorbyen,indefinite pluralbyer,definite pluralbyene)

1. form removed with thespelling reform of 2005;superseded bybyge

• bya,bøya,bøye

FromDutchbui.

• IPA^(key):/²byː.ə/

bye f (definite singularbya,indefinite pluralbyer,definite pluralbyene)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out andadd a translation, then remove the text{{rfdef}}.

• “bye” inThe Nynorsk Dictionary.

• buye

FromMiddle Englishboye, fromOld English*bōia, fromProto-Germanic*bōjô. Cognate with West Englishbwoy.

• IPA^(key):/biː/,/bwiː/
• Homophones:bee,buee

bye (pluralbys)

1. boy

   Synonym:gorson

   • 1867,GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page54:

     Hea's a gooude lickeenbye.

     He's a good-lookingboy.

   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page96:

     Earch myde was a queen, an earchbye was a king;

     Each maid was a queen, and eachboy was a king;

   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, inSONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page96:

     Zoo wough aul vell a-danceen; earchbye gae a poage

     So we all fell a-dancing; eachboy gave a kiss

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page29