Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary полностью

8 PREP If you say what someone means by a particular word or expression, you are saying what they intend the word or expression to refer to. □  Stella knew what he meant by 'start again'. □  'You're unbelievably lucky'—'What do you mean by that?'

9 PREP If you hold someone or something by a particular part of them, you hold that part. □  He caught her by the shoulder and turned her around. □  She was led by the arm to a small room at the far end of the corridor. □  He picked up the photocopy by one corner and put it in his wallet.

10 PREP Someone or something that is by something else is beside it and close to it. □  Judith was sitting in a rocking-chair by the window. □  They stood by the side of the road. □  Emma was by the door. ● ADV [ADV after v] By is also an adverb. □  Large numbers of security police stood by.

11 PREP If a person or vehicle goes by you, they move past you without stopping. □  A few cars passed close by me. □  He kept walking and passed by me on his side of the street. ● ADV [ADV after v] By is also an adverb. □  The bomb went off as a police patrol went by.

12 PREP If you stop by a place, you visit it for a short time. □  We had made arrangements to stop by her house in Pacific Grove. ● ADV [ADV after v] By is also an adverb. □  I'll stop by after dinner and we'll have that talk.

13 PREP If something happens by a particular time, it happens at or before that time. □  By eight o'clock he had arrived at my hotel. □  We all knew by then that the affair was practically over.

14 PREP If you do something by day, you do it during the day. If you do it by night, you do it during the night. □  By day a woman could safely walk the streets, but at night the pavements became dangerous. □  She had no wish to hurry alone through the streets of London by night.

15 PREP In arithmetic, you use by before the second number in a multiplication or division sum. □  …an apparent annual rate of 22.8 per cent (1.9 multiplied by 12). □  230cm divided by 22cm is 10.45cm.

16 PREP You use by to talk about measurements of area. For example, if a room is twenty feet by fourteen feet, it measures twenty feet in one direction and fourteen feet in the other direction. □  Three prisoners were sharing one small cell 3 metres by 2 metres.

17 PREP If something increases or decreases by a particular amount, that amount is gained or lost. □  Violent crime has increased by 10 percent since last year. □  Their pay has been cut by one-third.

18 PREP Things that are made or sold by the million or by the dozen are made or sold in those quantities. □  Parcels arrived by the dozen from America. □  Liberty fabrics, both for furnishing and for dress-making, are sold by the metre.

19 PREP You use by in expressions such as 'minute by minute' and 'drop by drop' to talk about things that happen gradually, not all at once. □  His father began to lose his memory bit by bit, becoming increasingly forgetful.

20 PHRASE If you are by yourself , you are alone. □  …a dark-haired man sitting by himself in a corner.

21 PHRASE If you do something by yourself , you succeed in doing it without anyone helping you. □  I didn't know if I could raise a child by myself. USAGE by

Don’t use ‘by’ with the names of towns or cities. Use near instead. □  Winston Churchill was born near Oxford.

bye ◆◇◇ /ba I / also bye-bye CONVENTION Bye and bye-bye are informal ways of saying goodbye.

bye -law → see bylaw