bailiwick

[ bey-luh-wik ]

/ ˈbeɪ ləˌwɪk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bailiwick ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the district within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.

a person's area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work: to confine suggestions to one's own bailiwick.

Nearby words

Origin of bailiwick

1425–75; late Middle English, equivalent to baili- bailie + wick wick³

SYNONYMS FOR bailiwick

2 domain, department, sphere, territory, turf.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bailiwick ON THESAURUS.COM

Related formssub·bail·i·wick, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bailiwick

He does so, hands in his star and rides on, leaving his bailiwick in the condition his patrons wanted.
Summers Gave Obama Cover|Michael Thomas|September 22, 2010|DAILY BEAST
Now see here, my daughter, you're getting out of your bailiwick.
The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop|Hamlin Garland
And if in one place in his bailiwick I haven't fried that codfish Granger to a crisp, it's not because I haven't been industrious.
Mixed Faces|Roy Norton
William de Staunton held the bailiwick there, and Reginald Abbenhall the woods.
The Forest of Dean|H. G. Nicholls

This plan should become, by your influence, the text of all the bailiwick memorials.
A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times|Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
In 1733 the bailiwick was transferred to Vevey and just seventy years later the castle became the property of Vaud.
The Spell of Switzerland|Nathan Haskell Dole

British Dictionary definitions for bailiwick

bailiwick

/ (ˈbeɪlɪwɪk) /

noun

law the area over which a bailiff has jurisdiction

a person's special field of interest, authority, or skill

Word Origin for bailiwick

C15: from baili(e) + wick ²

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

Word Origin and History for bailiwick

bailiwick

"district of a bailiff," early 15c., baillifwik, from bailiff (q.v.) + Middle English form of Old English wic "village" (see wick (n.2)). Figurative sense of "one's natural or proper sphere" is first recorded 1843.

bailiwick

noun

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of bailiwick

Examples from the Web for bailiwick

British Dictionary definitions for bailiwick

bailiwick

noun

Word Origin for bailiwick

Word Origin and History for bailiwick

bailiwick