Obs. Also 3 bisawe. [early ME. bisawe, f. bi-, BY + sawe, SAW, saying; cf. BYWORD.] A current saying; a proverb.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 88. Me seið ine bisawe—‘Vrom mulne & from cheping … me tiðinge bringeð.’
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. V. 461. Hit is a bysawe, ‘God have mercy of soules, quoth Oswalde, and fil to þe grounde.’
