BY AND BY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does by and by mean? 

• BY AND BY (adverb)
  The adverb BY AND BY has 1 sense:

1. at some eventual time in the future

  Familiarity information: BY AND BY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BY AND BY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

At some eventual time in the future

Synonyms:

by and by; later

Context example:

I'll see you later

 Context examples 

You shall know by and by.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Perhaps by and by I may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than public ones.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

So, by and by, I, too, fall down in the snow, and there is no one to help me up. I must get up by myself.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

By and by in came the masters of the cottage.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

By and by Beth said, with recovered serenity, "You'll tell them this when we go home?"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But then, if they should only be gone out for an hour till it is dryer, and call by and by?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was hard work, although he was so big; but by and by they were drawn out of the current, and then Dorothy took the Tin Woodman's long pole and helped push the raft to the land.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

By and by she put her other hand on my shoulder; and so we both sat, looking into the past, without saying another word, until we parted for the night.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By and by both fall down and cannot get up, and I must help them up all the time, else they will not get up and will die there in the snow.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

If he finds he can do more by and by, I dare say he will, for I am sure he must be an excellent good-hearted man.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)