aby

Verb

1. To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.
   • Foole-hardy Knight, full soone thou shalt aby / This fond reproach, thy body will I hang, [Hee takes down / his pole.] / And loe vpon that string thy teeth shall hang: Prepare thy selfe, for dead soone shalt thou bee -...

   Synonyms: make up

2. To pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something).
   • Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John...
   • We doubt thee not; / Thy tale seems true, nor dost thou glorify / Thyself herein—certes thou wouldst abye / A heavy fate if thou shouldst lie herein— […] - 1870, William Morris, “February: Bellerophon in Lycia”, in The...

   Synonyms: sustain

3. To endure or tolerate (something); to experience.
   • The muckle black deil was father to the Frasers, a'body kens that; and as for the Gregara, I never could abye the reek of them since I could stotter on two feet. - 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Wood by...

   Synonyms: brook go on hold on put up with abide aby astand endure lie prevail last live persist remain stick stick it out stick out abear accept allow bear bide dree forbear

4. To pay for (something); to buy.

   Synonyms: procure purchase aby buy cheap snap up

5. To pay the penalty; to atone.

   Synonyms: expiate propitiate

6. To endure; to remain.
   • So long as breath, and hable puiſſaunce / Did natiue corage vnto him ſupply, / His pace he freſhly forward did aduaunce, / And carried her beyond all ieopardy, / But nought that wanteth reſt, can long aby. - 1590,...