Forms: 7 bumbaylie, 7, 9 dial. -baily, 7– -bayliff(e, 7– -bailiff. [app. f. BUM sb.1 + BAILIFF: i.e., the bailiff that is close at the debtor’s back, or that catches him in the rear. Cf. the F. equivalent pousse-cul, colloquially shortened to cul, precisely like the Eng. BUM.] A contemptuous synonym of BAILIFF 2: ‘A bailiff of the meanest kind; one that is employed in arrests’ (J.).
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. iv. 194. Scout mee for him at the corner of the Orchard like a bum-Baylie.
1638. G. M., Ess. & Char. Prison & Pr., 30. The very offscum of the rascall multitude, as … Decoyes, Bum-bayliffes, disgraced Pursevants … and a rabble of such stinkardly companions.
1650. J. Jones, Judges Judg., 34. [Debtors] taken … from their Ploughs, which are their Livelihood … by vagrant Bum-baylies, and imprisoned.
1768–78. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 528. The two necessary ministers of justice, a bum-bailiff and a Jack Ketch.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., III. ii. (1849), 148. I have a mortal antipathy to catchpolls, bumbailiffs and little great men.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., i. A confounded pettifogging bum-bailiff.
