[ˈbeɪlɪf], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a sheriff's officer who executes writs and processes and carries out distraints and arrests
(e.g: word spread that bailiffs, accompanied by the police, had turned up to evict traders and seize their properties)

- an official in a court of law who keeps order, looks after prisoners, etc.
(e.g: as the bailiff took him away, his mother wept while I averted my eyes)

- the sovereign's representative in a district, especially the chief officer of a hundred


Phrases:

Origin:
Middle English: from Old French baillif, inflected form of bailli (see bailie), based on Latin bajulus ‘carrier, manager’