Dictionary

bailiwick en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• bā'lĭ-wĭk
• /ˈbeɪ.lɪ.wɪk/

Etymology

From bailie (“bailiff”) and wick (“dwelling”), from Old English wīc.

Meanings

1. The district within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.
   • The Bailiwick of Jersey.
2. (broadly) A person's concern or sphere of operations, their area of skill or authority.
   • Jack is full of these insights, thoughtful turns of phrase from a character whose perpetual struggle between wastrel and righteous is all too familiar a bailiwick for the universal insecurities of the human condition. 2020 September 28, Alex McLevy, “Marilynne Robinson finds transcendence in the stunning, soul-searching Jack”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2020:
   • I established the fairly well-understood pattern that affairs of state were not in my bailiwick. 1961, Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt:
   • This “feminist chortling” (as she calls it) about the disgraced royal is right in the bailiwick of the writer who virtually invented the term mansplaining. 2026 March 25, Zoe Williams, “‘A new world is being born’: author Rebecca Solnit on the ‘slow revolution’ the far right cannot tolerate”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Relateds

bailie · bailiff

Synonyms

turf · sphere · jurisdiction · department · territory · wheelhouse · domain · province

Translations (24)

nl competentie (area or subject of authority or involvement) · nl domein (area or subject of authority or involvement) · es bailía (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · is fógetaumdæmi (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · sh nadležnost (area or subject of authority or involvement) · gv bayleeys (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · nl baljuwschap (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · fr bailliage (area or subject of authority or involvement) · ru бейливик (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · es bailía (area or subject of authority or involvement) · gv bayleeaght (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · fr compétence (area or subject of authority or involvement) · is starfssvið (area or subject of authority or involvement) · is þekkingarsvið (area or subject of authority or involvement) · pl baliwat (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · sv verksamhetsområde (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · nl meierij (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · nl gezag (area or subject of authority or involvement) · is áhugasvið (area or subject of authority or involvement) · is valdsvið (area or subject of authority or involvement) · de Vogtei (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · fr bailliage (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · it bailiato (precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction) · fr autorité (area or subject of authority or involvement)