When I first came across this word, I mentally pronounced it as “pur-lee-us” and had no idea what it could mean. Of course I had to look it up, because that’s what we should do when we don’t know what a word means. Anyway, I looked it up so you didn’t have to. And when I saw the pronunciation, I realized I have heard this word before and kind of already knew it.
Purlieus – (pronounced pur-lyoo) neighborhood, or a place frequented by a person
Usage: “Inspector, I am about to look for the gunpowder plotter,” went on Herlock Sholmes. “Not, however, in the purlieus of crime – not in the haunts of anarchists.”
Of course, if you want to know where Sholmes went to look for the gunpowder plotter, you will have to read the story “The Case of the Gunpowder Plot” in The Complete Casebook of Herlock Sholmes.