The Collaborative International Dictionary
Byssus \Bys"sus\, n.; pl. E. Byssuses; L. Byssi.[L. byssus fine flax, fine linen or cotton, Gr. by`ssos .]
A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk.
(Zo["o]l.) A tuft of long, tough filaments which are formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the Pinna and Mytilus, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.
(Bot.) An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.
Asbestus.
Usage examples of "byss".
But if you want my reading, it all started with that little jaunt you took out to Byss about nine years ago.
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Hold what ye list, fond believing Sprites, You cannot swerve the pulsion of the Byss, Which thinking on, yet weighing not Its thought, Unchecks Its clock-like laws.
Cabinet ministers and diplomatic liaisons, senior advisers and planetary rulers, roused from sleep, called away from other duties, torn away from their private business to gather in front of monitors on every planet from Bespin to Byss.
For I saw and knew the being of all things, the Byss and the AByss, and the eternal generation of the holy Trinity, the descent and original of the world and of all creatures through the divine wisdom.