peace bond

peace bond (plural peace bonds)

1. (Canada, US, law) A court order forbidding one party to bother another. [from 19th c.]
   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 23, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

     "... We're scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him."
     Atticus smiled wryly. "Do what? Put him under a peace bond?"

   • 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 7, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, page 151:

     “She's awready^[sic] about to get us put under a peace bond. She's all the time spying in that alley behind her shutters.”

• restraining order