aby

participle past abought · past abought · alternative abye · alternative abuy · alternative abie

1. archaictransitiveTo pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.First known use 12th c.

   Foole-hardy Knight, full soone thou shalt aby / This fond reproach, thy body will I hang, [Hee takes down / his pole.] / And loe vpon that string thy teeth shall hang: Prepare thy selfe, for dead soone shalt thou bee

   1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature G, recto

   Synonyms: make up

2. archaicfigurativelytransitiveTo pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something).First known use 12th c.

   Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 455

   1 more example

   We doubt thee not; / Thy tale seems true, nor dost thou glorify / Thyself herein—certes thou wouldst abye / A heavy fate if thou shouldst lie herein— […]

   1870, William Morris, “February: Bellerophon in Lycia”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 339

   Synonyms: sustain

3. transitiveobsolete except ScotlandTo endure or tolerate (something); to experience.First known use 16th c.

   The muckle black deil was father to the Frasers, a'body kens that; and as for the Gregara, I never could abye the reek of them since I could stotter on two feet.

   1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Wood by Silvermills”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 131

   Synonyms: brook, go on, hold on, put up with, abide, astand, endure, go on

4. obsoletetransitiveTo pay for (something); to buy.First known use 12th–16th c.

   Synonyms: procure, purchase, buy, cheap, procure, purchase, snap up

5. intransitiveobsoleteTo pay the penalty; to atone.First known use 12th–16th c.

   Synonyms: expiate, propitiate

6. intransitiveobsoleteTo endure; to remain.First known use 14th–16th c.

   So long as breath, and hable puiſſaunce / Did natiue corage vnto him ſupply, / His pace he freſhly forward did aduaunce, / And carried her beyond all ieopardy, / But nought that wanteth reſt, can long aby.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 494–495

1. A village in Aby with Greenfield parish, East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TL4178).

1. A village in south-eastern Ivory Coast.

plural Abys

1. nicknameThe Abyssinian cat.

1. abbreviationinformalinitialismChristianityInitialism of Archbishop of York.