By"word` (?), n. [AS.biword; bi, E.by+word.]
1.
A common saying; a proverb; a saying that has a general currency.
I knew a wise man that had it for a byword.
Bacon.
2.
The object of a contemptuous saying.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen.
Ps. xliv. 14
© Webster 1913.