abying

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

   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

   Synonyms:

   brook, go on, hold on, put up with, abide, astand, endure, lie, prevail, last

4. (obsolete, transitive) To pay for (something); to buy.

   Synonyms:

   procure, purchase, buy, cheap, snap up

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

See all 9 meanings of aby