Definition of by-blow in English:

noun

• 1A side-blow not at the main target.

  Example sentences

  • ‘On the accursed spot where a house was burnt down, they never build a new one; if, in laying the ground-beam, a single spark is kindled by a by-blow, it foretells a new fire, and they look out another place to build on.’

• 2A man's illegitimate child.

  ‘he was, he declared, a by-blow of the prince’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Eric thinks he's just God's gift to humanity (not to mention all women), but all he is is a low-down, parasitical by-blow of a cockroach and a worm.’
  • ‘There were no other brothers to help ease the burden but, fortunately, neither were there sisters to provide dowries for and, as far as Croft could tell, no by-blows of his brother's to maintain.’
  • ‘The second hypothesis, which is more plausible, is that Helen is illegitimate - one of her debauched father's by-blows.’
  • ‘The Vagabonds, in effect, buy off the by-blow of their hired man's romance, and the action of the novel consists of what the present generation makes of that earlier gift.’
  • ‘Ana, incidentally, is the acknowledged but illegitimate daughter of a powerful Spanish lord who offered the convent a large sum for accepting his by-blow as a new recruit.’

  Synonyms

  illegitimate child, child born out of wedlock

  View synonyms