Bāil1, v. t.
[imp. & p. p. BAILED; p. pr. & vb. n. BAILING.] [Norm. & O. Fr. bailler, Pr. bailar, to give, to deliver, from Lat. bajulare, to bear a burden, bajulus, he who bears burdens.]
Sense 1. To deliver; to release. [Obs.]
Ne none there was to rescue her, ne none to bail. Spenser.
Sense 2. (Law.) To set free, liberate, or deliver from arrest, or out of custody, to the keeping of other persons, on their undertaking to be responsible for the appearance at a certain day and place of the person bailed.
☞ The word is applied to the magistrate or the surety. The magistrate bails a man when he liberates him from arrest or imprisonment upon bond given with sureties. The surety bails a person when he procures his release from arrest by giving bond for his appearance. Blackstone.
Sense 3. (Law.) To deliver, as goods in trust, for some special object or purpose, upon a contract, expressed or implied, that the trust shall be faithfully executed on the part of the bailee, or person intrusted; as, to bail cloth to a tailor to be made into a garment, or to bail goods to a carrier. Blackstone. Kent.
Sense 4. To free from water; as, to bail a boat.
☞ In this sense, sometimes improperly written bale. The word is probably the same as bail in law, to free or liberate, and signifies to throw out water as with a bucket or shovel.