by-and-by

[bahy-uhn-bahy]

noun

1. the future.

   to meet in the sweet by-and-by.

by and by

adverb

1. presently or eventually

noun

1. a future time or occasion

Word History and Origins

Origin of by-and-by¹

1300–50; Middle English bi and bi one by one, at once. See by

Idioms and Phrases

After a while, soon, as in She'll be along by and by. The expression probably relies on the meaning of by as a succession of quantities (as in “two by two”). This adverbial phrase came to be used as a noun, denoting either procrastination or the future. William Camden so used it for the former (Remains, 1605): “Two anons and a by and by is an hour and a half.” And W.S. Gilbert used it in the latter sense when Lady Jane sings plaintively that little will be left of her “in the coming by and by,” that is, as she grows old (Patience, 1881). [Early 1500s]