by and by

1. 1.

   at some eventual time in the future

   “By and by he'll understand”

   “I'll see you later”

   Synonymslater

Questions about by and by

What does by and by mean?

by and by means "at some eventual time in the future".

What is another word for by and by?

Close synonyms include later. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is by and by a common word?

by and by is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.