or bum baily, bummy bum, subs. phr. (old).—A bailiff or sheriff’s officer. As verb. = to arrest.
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, iii. 4. Sir Jo. Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard like a BUM-BAILY.
1628. H. SHIRLEY, The Martyr’d Souldier, v. I was first a Varlet, then a BUMBAILY, now an under Jailor.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I., i., 393.
| It had appeared with courage bolder, | |
| Then Sergeant BUM, invading shoulder. |
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BUM, a Bailiff, or Serjeant.
1698–1700. WARD, The London Spy, VII., 153.
| The Vermin of the Law, the BUM, | |
| Who gladly kept his distance, | |
| Does safely now in triumph come. |
1761. DR. HAWKESWORTH, Edgar and Emmeline, ii., 1. By the heavens! she has the gripe of a BUM-BAILIFF.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, xvii. We are in right opposition to sign and seal, writ and warrant, serjeant and tipstaff, catch-poll and BUM-BAILEY.
1845. B. DISRAELI, Sybil; or, The Two Nations, III., i. Juggings has got his rent to pay, and is afeard of the BUMS.
1869. E. WOOD, Roland Yorke, xxxii. You know the state we were in all the summer; Gerald next to penniless, and going about in fear of the BUM-BAILIES.
