Word.ws English Dictionary

aby

/ˈeɪbiː//əˈbaɪ/

aby verb: to pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.

Verb

aby (simple past and past participle abought, no other forms attested in Modern English)

  1. (archaic, transitive) 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 bee1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature G, recto
    Synonyms:
    make up
  2. (archaic, figuratively, transitive) 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 Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 455
    • 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 Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part IV, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 339
    Synonyms:
    sustain
  3. (transitive, obsolete except Scotland) 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 Silvermills”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 131
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To pay for (something); to buy.
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To pay the penalty; to atone.
    Synonyms:
    expiate, propitiate
  6. (intransitive, obsolete) 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, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 494–495

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Aby

Aby

  1. A village in Aby with Greenfield parish, East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TL4178).

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Aby

Aby

  1. A village in south-eastern Ivory Coast.

Noun (1) capitalized: Aby

Aby (plural Abys)

  1. (nickname) The Abyssinian cat.

Noun (2) capitalized: ABY

ABY

  1. (abbreviation, informal, initialism) Initialism of Archbishop of York.

Synonyms of aby

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of aby

Forms of aby

Verb
past participleabought
pastabought
alternative formabye
alternative formabuy
alternative formabie
Noun
pluralAbys

Origin of aby

From Middle English abyen, abien, abiggen, from Old English ābyċġan (“to buy; pay for; buy off; requite; recompense; redeem; perform; execute”), from Proto-Germanic *uzbugjaną, equivalent to a- + buy. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usbugjan). Not related to abide.

From Old Norse á (“river”) + býr (“town”). Literally "Town on a River" or "River Town". Cognate with Swedish Åby and Danish Aaby, both other towns.

A clipping of the word.

Phrases with aby

Words that rhyme with aby

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about aby

What does aby mean?
Aby means to pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.
What part of speech is aby?
Aby can be a verb, a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce aby?
Aby is pronounced /əˈbaɪ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of aby?
The past tense of aby is abought.

Words near aby in the dictionary

  1. abwes
  2. ABWH
  3. abwoi
  4. abx
  5. Abxazo
  6. aby
  7. Aby with Greenfield
  8. abyde
  9. Abydene
  10. Abydenes
  11. abydocomist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aby (page history and authors); Aby (page history and authors); ABY (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-aby.wav.

Cite this entry: “aby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.