purlieu
[noun]
Synonyms: resort, hangout, haunt, rendezvous, stamping ground, watering hole, environs, bound(s), boundary, compass, confine(s), limits, precinct(s), outskirt(s), suburbs

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

purlieu noun. ['pǝ:lju:] Also (earlier) purlew. L15.
[Prob. alt. (by assim. to leu LIEU) of Anglo-Norman purale(e, Old French pourallee a going round to settle the boundaries, from po(u)raler traverse, from po(u)r- PUR- + aller go. Cf. PURALé.]
1. Hist. A tract of land on the border of a forest, esp. one formerly included within the forest boundaries and still partly subject to the forest laws. L15.

2. An outlying district of a city or town, a suburb. Also, a squalid or disreputable street or quarter. E17.
New Yorker Some godforsaken street in the..endlessly sprawling purlieus of Memphis.

3. In pl. The outskirts or surroundings of a place (lit. & fig.). M17.
■ G. Etherege I walk within the purlieus of the law.
■ H. Mantel Fierce cats spit and howl..in the purlieus of the buildings.

4. transf. & fig. A place where a person has the right to range at large; a person's usual haunts; bounds, limits. M17.
■ Swift Wit has..its purlieus, out of which it may not stray.

Comb.:
purlieu-man Hist. the owner of freehold land within the purlieu of a forest.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲