bye-

bye-

pref.

Variant of by-.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bye¹

(baɪ)

n. Also, by.

1. (in a tournament) the preferential status of a player or team not paired with a competitor in an early round and thus automatically advanced to play in the next round.

2. something subsidiary or secondary.

adj.

3. by ¹.

Idioms:

by the bye, by the way; incidentally.

[1710–20; variant sp. of by¹ in its n. sense “side way”]

bye²

or by

(baɪ)

interj.

good-bye.

[by shortening]

bye-

var. of by-: bye-election.

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.