by-stroke

English

Etymology

From by- +‎ stroke.

Noun

by-stroke (plural by-strokes)

1. An accidental or slyly given stroke; a side-blow or side-wind; a ruse.
   • 1911, The Parliamentary debates: Official Report:

     Financier as he was, he felt it was not right by a by-stroke or side-wind to alter what is a matter of high constitutional practice.

   • 1907, Caroline Lane Reynolds Slemmer Jebb (lady.), Arthur Woollgar Verrall, Life and letters of Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, O. M., LITT. D.:

     We must be content to signalize a by-stroke of sympathetic delicacy.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “by-stroke”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)