purlieu.

1. An area near or surrounding a place, often its outskirts.

2. A place or set of places that someone habitually visits.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• urban purlieus
• purlieus of a town

On the page

The town's purlieus dissolved into gardens and abandoned yards.

He rented a room in the urban purlieus beyond the theater district.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting. Forms: Singular purlieu; plural purlieus. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.