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‘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’
‘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.’