English Explanatory Dictionary

sheriff

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
  2. A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.
  3. A government official, usually responsible for law enforcement in their county and for administration of the county jail, sometimes an officer of the court, usually elected.
verb
  1. To carry out the duties of a sheriff.
name
  1. An English surname originating as an occupation.

Pronunciation

/ˈʃɛɹɪf/ /ˈʃɛɹəf/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sheriff.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-sheriff.wav

Word forms

sheriff sheriffs sherriff shrieve sheriffing sheriffed

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English shirreve, in turn inherited from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to Sharif (Arabic شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour with cognates in other languages, including Persian, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.

Related words

hatti-sherif bailiff constable justice of the peace marshal police

Derived words

high sheriff sheriffalty sheriffdom sheriffess sheriffhood Sheriff Hutton sheriffry sheriffship sheriffwick subsheriff there is a new sheriff in town undersheriff

Translations

Arabic: شَرِيف Armenian: շերիֆ Belarusian: шэры́ф Bulgarian: шери́ф Catalan: xèrif Chinese Mandarin: 郡治安官 Czech: šerif Dutch: sheriff Esperanto: ŝerifo Finnish: šeriffi Finnish: seriffi Finnish: sheriffi French: shérif Galician: shériff Georgian: შერიფი German: Sheriff Greek: σερίφης Hebrew: שֶׁרִיף Hindi: शेरिफ़ Hindi: शरीफ Hungarian: seriff Hungarian: megyei rendőrfőnök Icelandic: fógeti Icelandic: skerfari Ido: ushero Irish: sirriam Italian: sceriffo Japanese: 保安官 Japanese: シェリフ Japanese: 郡治安官 Korean: 보안관 Korean: 형사 Malay: syerif Marathi: शेरिफ Norwegian: sheriff Norwegian: lensmann Ojibwe: dakoniwewinini Persian: کلانتر Persian: شریف Polish: szeryf Portuguese: xerife Romanian: șerif Russian: шери́ф Scottish Gaelic: siorram Serbo-Croatian: шѐриф Serbo-Croatian: šèrif Spanish: sheriff Spanish: alguacil Swedish: sheriff Tagalog: serip Turkish: şerif Ukrainian: шери́ф
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