by

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. prep. Close to; next to: the window by the door.
2. prep. With the use or help of; through: We came by the back road.
3. prep. Up to and beyond; past: We drove by the house.
4. prep. At or to: stopped by the bakery; came by the house.
5. prep. In the period of; during: sleeping by day.
6. prep. Not later than: by 5:30 P.M.
7. prep. In the amount of: letters by the thousands.
8. prep. To the extent of: shorter by two inches.
9. prep. According to: played by the rules.
10. prep. With respect to: siblings by blood.
11. prep. In the name of: swore by the Bible to tell the truth.
12. prep. Through the agency or action of: was killed by a bullet.
13. prep. Used to indicate a succession of specified individuals, groups, or quantities: One by one they left. They were persuaded little by little.
14. prep. Used in multiplication and division: Multiply 4 by 6 to get 24.
15. prep. Used with measurements: a room 12 by 18 feet.
16. prep. Toward. Used to express direction with points of the compass: south by east.
17. adv. On hand; nearby: Stand by.
18. adv. Aside; away: We put it by for later.
19. adv. Up to, alongside, and past: The car raced by.
20. adv. At or to one's home or current location: Stop by later today.
21. adv. Into the past: as years go by.
22. idiom. by oneself Without company; alone: went by herself.
23. idiom. by oneself Without help: wrote the book by myself.
24. n. Variant of bye¹.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Near; close to; beside; with; about: as, sit by me; the house stands by a river.
2. Near, or up to and beyond, with reference to motion; past: as, to move or go by a church.
3. Along (in direction or progress); in or through (the course of); over or alongside of: as, to approach a town by the highway.
4. On; upon; especially, through or on as a means of conveyance: as, he journeyed both by water and by rail.
5. Through. Through the action or operation of, as the immediate agent or the producing or instigating cause: as, the empire founded by Napoleon; a novel written by Cooper; the victories gained by Nelson; a picture painted by Rubens.
6. With the perception of, as the subject or recipient of the action or feeling: as, he died regretted by all who knew him; this was felt by them to be an intentional slight. Through the means or agency of, as the intermediate agent or instrument: as, the city was destroyed by fire.
7. Through the use of; with the aid of, as means: as, to take by force; by your leave.
8. In consequence of; by virtue of.
9. In adjuration: Before; in the presence of; with the witness of; with regard to things, in view of, in consideration of: followed by the name of the being or thing appealed to as sanction: as, I appeal to you by all that is sacred.
10. According to; by direction, authority, example, or evidence of: as, this appears by his own account; it is ten o'clock by my watch; these are good rules to live by.
11. In the measure or quantity of; in the terms of: as, to sell cloth by the yard, milk by the quart, eggs by the dozen, beef by the pound; to board by the week.
12. In comparison: To the extent of: noting mensuration or the measure or ratio of excess or inferiority: as, largerby a half; older by five years; to lessen by a third.
13. Multiplied into: noting the relation of one dimension to another (in square or cubic measure): as, five feet by four, that is, measuring five feet in one direction and four feet in the other.
14. During the course of; within the compass or period of: as, by day; by night.
15. At (a terminal point of time); not later than; as early as: as, by this time the sun had risen; he will be here by two o'clock.
16. At a time; each separately or singly: as, one by one; two by two; piece by piece.
17. With reference to; in relation to; about; concerning; with: formerly especially after say, speak, etc., now chiefly after do, act, deal, etc.
18. Besides; over and above; beyond.
19. Without aid; by individual action exclusively: as, I did it all by myself.
20. [The adverbial use is not found in AS., and is rare in ME.] Near; in the same place with; at hand: often (before the verb always) qualified by a more definite adverb; as, near by; close by; hard by.
21. Aside; off.
22. Of motion: Across in front or alongside and beyond: as, the carriage went by.
23. Of time: In the past; over.
24. At once; straightway; immediately; then.
25. At some time in the future; before long; presently.
26. n. A thing not directly aimed at; something not the immediate object of regard: as, by the by (that is, by the way, in passing).
27. n. The condition of being odd, as opposed to even; the state of having no competitor in a contest where several are engaged in pairs. Thus, in field trials of dogs, when the number of those entered for competition in pairs is uneven, the odd contestant is said to have a by.
28. n. In cricket, a run made on a ball not struck by the batsman, but which the wicket-keeper has failed to stop.
29. n. In the game of hide-and-seek, the goal: as, to touch the by.
30. n. A town; habitation; dwelling: now extant only in place-names, especially in the north of England, as in Derby (Anglo-Saxon Deóra bȳ, literally ‘dwelling of deer’), Whitby, etc.
31. n. A ring; a bracelet.
32. An obsolete spelling of buy.
33. An obsolete variant of be.
34. An obsolete variant of bi-, be- (unaccented). See be-.
35. The modern form of bi-, be-, under the accent, as in byspell, byword, etc.
36. An obsolete variant of bi-, be-.
37. The adverb by used as a prefix. This use first appears in the sixteenth century, by- being a quasi-adjective, meaning side, secondary, as in by-path, by-street, byway, by-play, by-stroke, etc.

Wiktionary

1. prep. Near or next to.
2. prep. At some time before (the given time), or before the end of a given time interval.
3. prep. Indicates the actor in a clause with its verb in the passive voice Through the action or presence of.
4. prep. Indicates the creator of a work Existing through the authorship etc of.
5. prep. Indicates the cause of a condition or event Through the action of, caused by, responsibility for; by dint of.
6. prep. Indicates a means Involving/using the means of.
7. prep. Indicates a source of light (medium emanating from hot sources)
8. prep. Indicates a rule followed Using the rules or logic of.
9. prep. Indicates the amount of some progression With a change of.
10. prep. In the formulae X by X and by Xs, indicates a steady progression, one X after another.
11. prep. Indicates a referenced source According to.
12. prep. Indicates an oath With the authority of.
13. prep. Used to separate dimensions when describing the size of something.
14. adv. Along a path which runs by the speaker.
15. adv. In the vicinity, near.
16. adv. To or at a place, as a residence or place of business.
17. adv. Aside, away.
18. adj. Out of the way, subsidiary.
19. n. card games A pass
20. interj. alternative spelling of bye.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. prep. In the neighborhood of; near or next to; not far from; close to; along with.
2. prep. On; along; in traversing. Compare 5.
3. prep. Near to, while passing; hence, from one to the other side of; past.
4. prep. Used in specifying adjacent dimensions.
5. prep. obsolete Against.
6. prep. With, as means, way, process, etc.; through means of; with aid of; through; through the act or agency of; ; profit is made by commerce; to take by force.
7. adv. Near; in the neighborhood; present.
8. adv. Passing near; going past; past; beyond.
9. adv. Aside.
10. adj. Out of the common path; aside; -- used in composition, giving the meaning of something aside, secondary, or incidental, or collateral matter, a thing private or avoiding notice. It was formerly more freely used in composition than it is now

WordNet 3.0

1. adv. in reserve; not for immediate use
2. adv. so as to pass a given point