bailiwick
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From bailie (“bailiff”) and wick (“dwelling”), from Old English wīc.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
bailiwick (plural bailiwicks)
- The district within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.
- The Bailiwick of Jersey.
- A person's concern or sphere of operations, their area of skill or authority.
- 1961, Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt:
- I established the fairly well-understood pattern that affairs of state were not in my bailiwick.
- 2020 September 28, Alex McLevy, “Marilynne Robinson finds transcendence in the stunning, soul-searching Jack”, in The A.V. Club[1]:
- Jack is full of these insights, thoughtful turns of phrase from a character whose perpetual struggle between wastrel and righteous is all too familiar a bailiwick for the universal insecurities of the human condition.
Synonyms[edit]
- (area or subject of authority or involvement): domain, department, jurisdiction, sphere, province, territory, turf, pale, wheelhouse.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction
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area or subject of authority or involvement
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References[edit]
- “bailiwick”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.