Word.ws English Dictionary

purlieus

purlieus is the plural of purlieu.

Meaning of purlieu

Noun

purlieu (plural purlieus or purlieux)

  1. (historical) The ground on the edges of a forest, especially when partly subject to the same forest laws concerning game hunting etc.
  2. The outskirts of any place; an adjacent district; the environs or neighborhood; milieu.
    • Whether Lady Anne knew or suspected who it was that drew his steps from the purlieus of fashion he knew not, nor held himself bound to explain.1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 76

Questions about purlieus

What is purlieus the plural of?
Purlieus is the plural of purlieu.

Words near purlieus in the dictionary

  1. purlicue
  2. purlicues
  3. purlieu
  4. purlieuman
  5. purlieumen
  6. purlieus
  7. purlieux
  8. purlin
  9. purline
  10. purlines
  11. purling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purlieus (page history and authors); purlieu (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “purlieus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purlieus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.