From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbaileybai‧ley /ˈbeɪli/ noun [countable] AATBBan open area inside the outer wall of a castle
Examples from the Corpus
bailey• This is a very special but long-abandoned eighteenth-century garden, laid out on the remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle.• Builth Castle Formidable earthworks remains of a substantial motte and bailey.• We wandered back into the freezing bailey.• There was an inner bailey containing the buildings of greatest importance.• Outside this was a citadel, fortified like the inner bailey, but containing a greater number of buildings.• In the outer bailey an officer was shouting orders about a gate being oiled.• He gathered his cloak and entered the bailey, a calmer place than the previous day.• And how dared he leave her standing out here in the bailey like a ... like a serf?Origin bailey (1200-1300) Old French baille, balie “fence, bailey” 