bail bond

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety to insure the appearance of the former in court at the return of the writ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety, to insure the prisoner's appearance in court, at the return of the writ.
• Special bail in court to abide the judgment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun US A surety, used to obtain the release of a criminal defendant who has been required to give bail.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun (criminal law) money that must be forfeited by the bondsman if an accused person fails to appear in court for trial