[Variant spelling of BY prep. in its subst. use.]
1. A term used in various games and sports:
a. Cricket. A run scored for a ball which passes the batsman, and which the wicket-keeper and long-stop fail to stop. To steal a bye: to make a run for a ball by starting the instant it passes the wicket-keeper. Leg-bye: a run obtained for a ball diverted by grazing the batsman’s person.
1746. in ‘Bat,’ Cricket Manual (1850), 80. Byes … 3.
1857. T. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. He has stolen three byes in the first ten minutes. Ibid. The ball … rises fast, catching Jack on the outside of the thigh, and bounding away as if from india-rubber, while they run two for a leg-bye amidst great applause.
1880. Times, 28 Sept., 11/5. When a bye was obtained stumps were drawn.
b. in Tennis, Boxing, Coursing, Cockfighting, etc.: The position of an individual, who, in consequence of the numbers being odd, is left without a competitor after the rest have been drawn in pairs. Hence the phrases To draw a bye, to run a bye, etc.
1883. Field, 22 Dec., 863. To do away with byes in the penultimate and final rounds of [lawn-tennis] matches.
1887. Daily News, 23 Feb., 3/7. The latter had had the benefit of drawing the bye in the second round.
1848. Craig, s.v. Bye, In Coursing, a dog is said to ‘run a bye’ when it runs a course against another not in the match—thus equalising its runnings to the other dogs in the match.
1883. Field, 22 Dec., 857. Sabrina then ran her bye, which she won.
c. in Lacrosse, etc.: A goal; a starting line.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. xlix. 124. Erecting the ‘byes’ or goals which were to guide the play.
1847–78. Halliw., By, the point or mark from which boys emit the marbles or taws. Yorksh.
d. A by-match or ‘event’; one not in the program.
1884. L’pool Daily Post, 30 June, 6/5. [Cockfighting] Some byes afterwards took place.
2. The name of a plot against the government of James I. (So called in opposition to the Main plot: the relation between the two is one of the disputed points in English history. Cf. BY sb. 1.)
1603. St. Trials. 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.
[1885. Low & Pulling, Dict. Eng. Hist., s.v. Bye Plot. It is certain that the Bye Plot had no connection with the Main or Raleigh’s Plot.]
1886. C. E. Doble, in Hearne, Collect. (1886), II. 436. Wm. Clarke was executed at Winchester, for his participation in ‘the Bye,’ Nov. 29, 1603.
