Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary -- Volume AB

A·by", A·bye" (?), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Abought (?).] [AS. ābycgan to pay for; pref. ā- (cf. Goth. us-, Ger. er-, orig. meaning out) + bycgan to buy. See Buy, and cf. Abide.]

1. To pay for; to suffer for; to atone for; to make amends for; to give satisfaction. [Obs.]

Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.
Shak.

2. To endure; to abide. [Obs.]

But nought that wanteth rest can long aby.
Spenser.

A·bysm" (?), n. [OF. abisme; F. abime, LL. abyssimus, a superl. of L. abyssus; Gr. ?. See Abyss.] An abyss; a gulf. "The abysm of hell." Shak.

A·bys"mal (?), a. Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.

Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space.
Carlyle.

A·bys"mal·ly, adv. To a fathomless depth; profoundly. "Abysmally ignorant." G. Eliot.

A·byss" (?), n. [L. abyssus a bottomless gulf, fr. Gr. ? bottomless; α priv. + ? depth, bottom.]

1. A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable, and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit.

Ye powers and spirits of this nethermost abyss.
Milton.

The throne is darkness, in the abyss of light.
Dryden.