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/ˈbʌɪbləʊ/ · noun
A blow struck to the side or from the side, as in swordplay; a secondary or incidental strike of any sort..
Either commander took speedy advantage of it—Hopton to make a swift diversion into Sussex and capture Arundel Castle (which was but a by-blow, for in a few weeks he had lost it again).
As a by-blow in the course of his relentless campaigns against Louis, Willem gained the three thrones of Britain in 1699 – but what a by-blow this proved!
c. 1892, Herman Melville, "Billy Budd, Foretopman" (novella), in Herman Melville: Selected Tales and Poems, Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1950), p. 298, Yes, Billy was a foundling, a presumable bye-blow, and, evidently, no ignoble one.
‘Nay,’ said the landlady, ‘if I thought he was a gentleman's son, thof he was a bye-blow, I should behave to him in another guess manner; for many of these bye-blows come to be great men, and, as my poor first husband used to say, never affront any customer that's a gentleman.’
The best hope has been that friends and family would talk, a hope partly realized in this discreet but perceptive memoir by his illegitimate daughter. . . . Little Mary was a by-blow and an inconvenience.
Use by-blow when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
By-blow means A blow struck to the side or from the side, as in swordplay; a secondary or incidental strike of any sort..
Common synonyms include bastard, illegitimate, love child, illegitimate child.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Either commander took speedy advantage of it—Hopton to make a swift diversion into Sussex and capture Arundel Castle (which was but a by-blow, for in a few weeks he had lost it again).
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