Word.ws English Dictionary

by-interest

by-interest noun: self-interest; private advantage.

Noun

by-interest

  1. Self-interest; private advantage.
    • It is a very difficult Matter to think of God aright, for either our Underſtandings, are blinded by the Clouds of our Paſſions, or led aſide by ſome By-intereſt or prevailing Affection; and hence proceed moſt of theſe extravagant Conceipts, concerning the Deity, entertained by the Generality.a. 1732, Lewis Atterbury, “Sermon I. The Nature and Necessity of Faith in God.”, in Sermons on Select Subjects. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Osborne, […], published 1743, →OCLC, pages 16–17

Questions about by-interest

What does by-interest mean?
By-interest means self-interest; private advantage.
What part of speech is by-interest?
By-interest is a noun.

Words near by-interest in the dictionary

  1. by-form
  2. by-forms
  3. by-gone
  4. by-hour
  5. by-hours
  6. by-interest
  7. by-lane
  8. by-lanes
  9. by-law
  10. by-laws
  11. by-line

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by-interest (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:

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