Image imitating a page from an old document, text (as in main toot): BUM BAILIFF. A sheriff's officer, who arrests debtors; so called perhaps from following his prey, and being at their bums, or, 'hard at their arses'. Blackstone says, it is a corruption of bound bailiff, from their being obliged to give bond for their good behaviour. A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)