1843
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1843 , Charles Dickens , A Christmas Carol :
"Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch. But I'll offer to go, if anybody else will. When I come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend; for we used to stop and speak whenever we met. Bye, bye !"
secondary or subsidiary object, course, undertaking, issue, etc
edit
by
1567 , Tu[...]. Ovid's Epist. 13b,
Refuseth me and all the wealth, and barres me by and maine.
1610 , Folkingham, Art of Survey , II. v. 55,
Extend from some fewe Maine Angls Base lines for Boundaries . . and from conuenient distances in the same, distantiate euery By.
a 1734 , North, Lives , II, 188,
Neither was the main let fall, nor [...] loss, upon the by.
1791-1804 , D'Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1806), 433/r,
This critic was right in the main, but not by the by; in the general, not in the particular.
a 16[1?]9 , Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (16[...?]) Pref. 3,
These things being but of the By.
a 1639 , W. Whateley, Prototypes , II xxxiv (1640), 159,
Religion is made of the by, it serveth some other Mistresse.
1607 , Hakewill, Apol. Pref. 10,
It led them some other way, thwarting and upon the by, not directly.
buy
1580 , Lyly, Enphues (Arb.) 430,
Alwayes haue an eye to the mayne, what so ever thou art chaunced at the buy.
bye
1598 , Barkcley, Felic. Man (1631) Pref.,
Dice players, that gaine more by the bye than by the maine.
1603 , St. Trials (R.),
You are fools, you are on the bye, Raleigh and I are on the main; we mean to take away the king and his cubs.
1639 , Sir R. Bakes in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxiiii. 3,
These are but the bye; the main of his aim is at the soul.
1615 , W. Hull, Mirr. Maiestie , 98,
Not intentionally, but accidentally (as we say) vpon the bye.