purlieu
purlieus, environs or neighborhood.
a place where one may range at large; confines or bounds.
a person's haunt or resort.
an outlying district or region, as of a town or city.
a piece of land on the edge of a forest, originally land that, after having been included in a royal forest, was restored to private ownership, though still subject, in some respects, to the operation of the forest laws.
Origin of purlieu
1Words Nearby purlieu
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use purlieu in a sentence
The forest laws still applied in a modified manner to the purlieu.
Eye of mocker has not seen, nor foot of unbeliever trod this purlieu, the last to receive his blessing.
The Fair God | Lew WallaceIt is, in fact, a purlieu where the public-houses are overcrowded and the baths not places of great resort.
The Old Inns of Old England, Volume II (of 2) | Charles G. HarperThey evidently deemed that a legal purlieu was a better place for 'pickings.'
Prose Fancies | Richard Le GallienneThis favourite purlieu of London has larger books than mine devoted to its history.
Middlesex | A.R. Hope Moncrieff
British Dictionary definitions for purlieu
/ (ˈpɜːljuː) /
English history land on the edge of a forest that was once included within the bounds of the royal forest but was later separated although still subject to some of the forest laws, esp regarding hunting
(usually plural) a neighbouring area; outskirts
(often plural) a place one frequents; haunt
rare a district or suburb, esp one that is poor or squalid
Origin of purlieu
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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