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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

aby.

To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.

3 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/əˈbaɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends.

    archaic · transitive
  2. To pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something).

    archaic · figuratively · transitive
  3. To endure or tolerate (something); to experience.

    transitive
  4. To pay for (something); to buy.

    obsolete · transitive
  5. To pay the penalty; to atone.

    intransitive · obsolete
  6. To endure; to remain.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English abyen, abien, abiggen, from Old English ābyċġan (“to buy; pay for; buy off; requite; recompense; redeem; perform; execute”), from Proto-Germanic *uzbugjaną, equivalent to a- + buy. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usbugjan). Not related to abide.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.