Definition/Meaning of forby

• English - Adjective: forby ( comparative more forby , superlative most forby ) ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic ) Uncommon; out of the ordinary; extraordinary; superior . He's a forbye man .
• English - Adverb: forby ( comparative more forby , superlative most forby ) ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic ) Past; by; beyond . 1899 , Richard Garnett , Alois Leonhard Brandl, The universal anthology : To see the world and folk that went forby , [...] ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic ) Uncommonly; exceptionally . He was forby kind .
• English - Preposition: forby ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic ) Beyond; past; more than; greater than; over and above; moreover . ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic , of time ) Past; gone by; over . ( UK dialectal , Northern England , Scotland , archaic ) Near; beside; by , close to . 1590 , Edmund Spenser , The Faerie Queene , II .viii: Those were the two sonnes of Acrates…
• English - Alternative forms: foreby [15th-16th c .] forbye
• English - Etymology: From Middle English forby , forbi , of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin , equivalent to fore- +‎ by . Compare Dutch voorbij ( “ past ” ), Low German vörbi , German vorbei ( “ gone , past ” ), Danish forbi , Swedish förbi . More at fore , by .