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by-product

American  
[bahy-prod-uhkt] / ˈbaɪˌprɒd əkt /

noun

  1. a secondary or incidental product, as in a process of manufacture.

  2. the result of another action, often unforeseen or unintended.

by-product British  

noun

  1. a secondary or incidental product of a manufacturing process

  2. a side effect

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
by-product Scientific  
/ bī′prŏd′əkt /

  1. Something produced in the process of making something else. When plants produce carbohydrates by photosynthesis, oxygen is released as a by-product. Asphalt and paraffin are by-products of the process of refining crude oil into gasoline.

Etymology

Origin of by-product

First recorded in 1900–05

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.