bailiff
/ˈbeɪlɪf/
bailiff noun: a reeve, (specifically) the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period.
Noun
bailiff (plural bailiffs)
- A reeve, (specifically) the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period.
- A high bailiff: an officer of the county courts responsible for executing warrants and court orders, appointed by the judge and removable by the Lord Chancellor.
- A bound bailiff: a deputy bailiff charged with debt collection.
- Any law enforcement officer charged with courtroom security and order.
- Synonyms:
- high bailiff, high-bailiff, warrant officer, beadle, catchpoll, bumbailiff, process server
- A huissier de justice or other foreign officer of the court acting as either a process server or as courtroom security.
- A king's man: any officer nominated by the English Crown.
- Synonym of hundredman: The chief officer of a hundred in medieval England.
- Synonyms:
- hundredman
- The title of the mayor of certain English towns.
- Synonyms:
- High-bailiff, High Bailiff, mayor
- The title of the castellan of certain royal castles in England.
- Synonyms:
- castellan
- The chief justice and president of the legislature on Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
- The Bailiff of Jersey is the President of the States and acts as Speaker of the Assembly in the Westminster tradition. He is responsible for the orderly conduct of the States Assembly and its business. As Presiding Officer he has the right of speech – which is mainly exercised for ensuring the...2011 June 29, “The Bailiff of Jersey”, in States Assembly, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2015
- Synonyms:
- bailly
- The High Bailiff of the Isle of Man.
- A bailie: an alderman in certain Scottish towns.
- Synonyms:
- bailie
Show 7 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
- An appointee of the French king administering certain districts of northern France in the Middle Ages.
- A head of a district ("bailiwick") of the Knights Hospitaller; a head of one of the national associations ("tongues") of the Hospitallers' headquarters on Rhodes or Malta.
- A landvogt in the medieval German states.
- Synonyms:
- landvogt
- A steward: the manager of a medieval manor charged with collecting its rents, etc.
- An overseer: a supervisor of tenant farmers, serfs, or slaves, usually as part of his role as steward (see above).
- Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- The foreman or overman of a mine.
- Any debt collector, regardless of his or her official status.
Proper noun capitalized: Bailiff
Bailiff (plural Bailiffs)
- A surname originating as an occupation.
bailiff meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
bailiff in Hindi
- equivalent officers of the court in foreign contexts
- कारिदा kāridā
bailiff in Tamil
- அமீனா, கட்டளைக்காரன்
bailiff in Marathi
- बेलिफ, जामीनदार
bailiff in Urdu
- bailiff
- ناظر nāzir
More languagesFewer languages
- bailiff in Bengali
- পিয়াদা piẏada
- bailiff in Kannada
- ಅಮೀನ, ಬೇಲೀಫ್
- bailiff in Punjabi
- ਬੇਲਿਫ
- bailiff in Gujarati
- બેલિફ
- bailiff in Odia
- ବେଲିଫ୍
- bailiff in Nepali
- बेलिफ
- bailiff in Arabic
- مَأْمُور maʔmūr
- bailiff in Malay
- bailif
- bailiff in Indonesian
- juru sita
Examples of bailiff in a sentence
- The Bailiff of Jersey is the President of the States and acts as Speaker of the Assembly in the Westminster tradition.2011 June 29, “The Bailiff of Jersey”, in States Assembly, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2015:
- Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Synonyms of bailiff
Forms of bailiff
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bailiffs |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Bailiffs |
Origin of bailiff
From Middle English baillif, baylyf, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bailif (plural bailis), probably from Vulgar Latin *bāiulivus (“castellan”), from Latin bāiulus (“porter; steward”), whence also bail. As a translation of foreign titles, semantic loan from French bailli, Scots bailie, Dutch baljuw, etc. Mostly replaced the role of native reeve. Doublet of bailo.
Occupational surname, from bailiff.
Words formed from bailiff
- bailiff-errant
- bailiff-haunted
- bailiff-peer
- bailiffry
- bailiffship
- bailiffwick
- bumbailiff
- bum-bailiff
- bum bailiff
- deputy bailiff
- deputy high bailiff
- farm bailiff
- High-bailiff
- High Bailiff
- jury bailiff
- private bailiff
- provincial bailiff
- subbailiff
- underbailiff
- under-bailiff
- water bailiff
Phrases with bailiff
Words that rhyme with bailiff
Questions about bailiff
- What does bailiff mean?
- Bailiff means a reeve, (specifically) the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period.
- What is bailiff in Hindi?
- Bailiff in Hindi is कारिदा (kāridā). See Bailiff meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bailiff in a sentence?
- The Bailiff of Jersey is the President of the States and acts as Speaker of the Assembly in the Westminster tradition.
- What part of speech is bailiff?
- Bailiff can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bailiff?
- Bailiff is pronounced /ˈbeɪlɪf/.
- What is the plural of bailiff?
- The plural of bailiff is bailiffs.
Words near bailiff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bailiff (page history and authors); Bailiff (page history and authors); bailiff (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bailiff (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ناظر (Urdu) (page history and authors); পিয়াদা (Bengali) (page history and authors); bailiff (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bailiff (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bailiff (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bailiff (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bailiff (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bailiff.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bailiff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bailiff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.