bail up


verb(adverb)
  1. Australian and NZ informal to confine (a cow) or (of a cow) to be confined by the head in a bail: See bail 3

  2. (tr) Australian history (of a bushranger) to hold under guard in order to rob

  1. (intr) Australian to submit to robbery without offering resistance

  2. (tr) Australian informal to accost or detain, esp in conversation; buttonhole

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

How to use bail up in a sentence

  • The ghosts would then begin to bail up water out of the sea to empty it in the boat.

    Japanese Fairy World | William Elliot Griffis
  • She could frighten a wildish cow and bail up anything that would stay in a yard with her.

    Robbery Under Arms | Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
  • We rode up sharpish, and showed our revolvers, singing out to him to 'bail up'.

    Robbery Under Arms | Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
  • The third mate seemed then somewhat cowed by my interference, and though he went round the ship and cried "bail up!"

    The Iron Pirate | Max Pemberton
  • Anyway, the boy will lam the cow down with a jagged yard shovel, let her out, and bail up another.

    While the Billy Boils | Henry Lawson