n. (pl. purlieus)
1. a person's bounds or limits.
2 a person's usual haunts.
3 Brit. hist. a tract on the border of a forest, esp. one earlier included in it and still partly subject to forest laws.
4 (in pl.) the outskirts; an outlying region.
Etymology: ME purlew, prob. alt. after F lieu place f. AF purale(e), OF pourallee a going round to settle the boundaries f. po(u)raler traverse