Bum-Bailiff
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
A person employed to dun one for a debt; the bailiff employed to arrest a debtor. Black thinks it a vulgar corruption of "bound-bailiff" (q. v.) Hall says that, from the notion of a humming or droning noise, the word "bum" was applied to dunning for a debt.