Forms: 3 baili, 4 bayly, -lie, -lye, bailye, bailly, baly, 4–5 baillie, 4–6 baily, bailie, 9 bailey. [a ME. variant of bayle, BAIL sb.3: possibly from the med.L. form balium, ballium; cf. Vetus Ballium = Old Bailey, Du Cange. Not in Fr. It coincides in its spellings with BAILLIE, with which it was probably confused.]
1. The external wall enclosing the outer court, and forming the first line of defence, of a feudal castle; and, in a wider sense, any of the circuits of walls or defences which surrounded the keep.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10023. Þe midmast bailly of þe þre Bitokeneþ wel hir chastite … Name of baily hit haþ for-þi For hit [hir] helde euer in baily [v.r. bailey, bayly]. Ibid., 10034. Þere stonden þre bailyes wiþoute Þat wel kepen þat castel From arwe shet & quarel.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1082. As quen I blusched vpon þat baly, So ferly þer-of watz þe falure.
1851. Turner, Dom. Archit., I. i. 16. The more recent habitation reared within its enclosures or baileys.
2. In later writers: The outer court or base court of a feudal castle; also, either of the two (or three courts) formed by the spaces between the circuits of walls or defences. Hence outer bailey, inner bailey.
1845. Gloss. Goth. Archit., I. 37. Bailey was a name given to the courts of a castle formed by the spaces between the circuits of walls or defences which surrounded the keep.
1851. Turner, Dom. Archit., I. i. 17. The royal apartments were not in the keep, but in the court-yard, or bailey.
1862. Luck of Ladysmede, I. 93. The entrance-gate … led into a narrow outer bailey.
3. (Retained in proper names: e.g., the Old Bailey in London, the seat of the Central Criminal Court, so called from the ancient bailey or ballium of the city wall between Lud Gate and New Gate, within which it was situated.)
1570. Piththy Note to Papists (Collier), 15. The Draile, wheron he lay fast bound in midst olde baily street.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 357/1. At a sessions holden in the justice hall in the old bailie of London.
1865. Morn. Star, 5 July. The phrase, ‘Old Bailey style,’ is an ordinary façon de parler, and is well understood to mean … a certain license of vituperation which has been supposed, rightly or wrongly, to characterise its proceedings.
