bailiwick

noun bai·li·wick \ ˈbā-li-ˌwik , -lē- \

|Updated on: 20 Aug 2018

Examples: bailiwick in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of bailiwick

1 law enforcement : the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff (see bailiff 1a)

2 : the sphere in which one has superior knowledge or authority : a special domain (see domain 4)

… concerns at the spy agency that the Pentagon is intruding into its traditional bailiwick.
—Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti

bailiwick was our Word of the Day on 10/05/2015. Hear the podcast!

Examples of bailiwick in a Sentence

questions about organization of the fund drive are my bailiwick

Recent Examples of bailiwick from the Web

Fortunately for Henderson, a large portion of the account was directed to the corporate-and-financial team, which was outside Bell’s bailiwick.

— ed caesar, The New Yorker, "The Reputation-Laundering Firm That Ruined Its Own Reputation," 25 May 2018
In the latest of several excursions outside his ministerial bailiwick, Mr Salvini, who is also a deputy prime minister and leader of the hard-right Northern League, threatened to ban ships carrying Cambodian rice from docking in Italian ports.

— The Economist, "How Matteo Salvini is dominating Italian politics," 21 June 2018
In theory, orchestrating an action plan after this report would be right in the cyber czar’s bailiwick.

— derek hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: White House cybersecurity report shows federal agencies still struggling to get secure," 30 May 2018
Each has his main bailiwick: Erik focuses more on e-commerce, Blake on Nordstrom Rack and tech, and Pete on merchandising and brand partnerships.

— phil wahba, Fortune, "Why Nordstrom Is Betting on High-Touch Tech," 25 May 2018
Note the shift of venue to Symphony Center from the series’ regular bailiwick, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

— john von rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Honoring Pierre Boulez, the titan of modernism who opened the ears of Chicagoans to the music of our time," 15 May 2018
Their bailiwick now includes how Muslims should act on social media.

— sudarsan raghavan, Washington Post, "Buying ‘likes’ on Facebook is ‘immoral’, Egypt’s top Muslim cleric declares," 17 Apr. 2018
The Tide's previous defensive coordinators had expertise coaching the secondary, which just so happens to be Saban's bailiwick, too.

— rainer sabin, AL.com, "How Tosh Lupoi is faring as Alabama's defensive coordinator," 5 Apr. 2018
These are usually the bailiwick of young players who’ve flown under the radar, not 13-year veterans.

— michael beller, SI.com, "Tim Beckham, Jake Faria Among the 2018 American League Fantasy Sleepers," 6 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bailiwick.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The first half of the word bailiwick comes from the Middle English word for "bailiff," in this case a term referring to a sheriff or chief officer of a town in medieval England, not the officer who assists today in U.S. courtrooms. Bailiff derives via Anglo-French from the Latin bajulare, meaning "to carry a burden." The second half of "bailiwick" comes from "wik," a Middle English word for "dwelling place" or "village," which ultimately derived from the Latin vicus, meaning "village." (This root also gave us "-wich" and "-wick," suffixes used in place names like Norwich and Warwick.) Although "bailiwick" dates from the 15th century, the "special domain" sense did not begin to appear in English until the middle of the 19th century.