by-blow

noun

ˈbī-ˌblō 

plural by-blows

1

: an indirect blow

While photographers snapped away, the two men chatted amiably about … the by-blows from Hurricane Esther, even then whipping through New York.

—Time

2

dated : a child born to parents who are not married to each other

… Aubrey noted that Shakespeare … had bedded down at the Crown Tavern in Oxford; that the innkeeper's wife was a very beautiful and witty woman; and that her poet son boasted of being Shakespeare's by-blow.

—S. Schoenbaum

… and now, after over twenty years of bachelorhood, Travis has suddenly discovered he has a daughter of seventeen, a by-blow from an earlier case.

—Charles Nicol

3

: a secondary or unintended consequence

As one of the by-blows of having my microwave books published in London, I have been going there more …

—Barbara Kafka

… the lunar programme was a child of its time, a by-blow of the Cold War arms race …

—Daily Telegraph (London)

Synonyms

• love child
• whoreson [archaic]

Word History

First Known Use

1590, in the meaning defined at sense 1