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sheriff Definition

sher·iff (s̸her′if)

noun

  1. in England, esp. formerly, any of various officers of a shire, or county
  2. ☆ in the U.S., the chief law-enforcement officer of a county, charged in general with the keeping of the peace and the execution of court orders

Etymology: ME schirreve < OE scirgerefa < scir, shire + gerefa, reeve

sheriff Related Forms

sher′·iff·dom noun

sheriff Synonyms

sheriff

n.

county officer, county administrator, peace officer, reeve; see also police officer.

sheriff Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • elect: In 1880 Pat Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County.
  • appoint: In 1885 he was appointed sheriff for Jones County.

Adjective modifier

  • deputy: In 1886 Owens became a deputy sheriff of Apache County.
  • temporary: The temporary sheriff has been used to sponsor the administration of justice in the Supreme Courts.
  • corrupt: Many charters gave towns the right to collect their own taxes thus removing corrupt sheriffs from doing so.
  • honorary: Appearing in court on Tuesday morning, Howley admitted the breaches and was refused bail by honorary sheriff Bill Wright.
  • part-time: The serious question, therefore, arises whether a part-time sheriff should not be in a similar position.
  • permanent: This has coincided with the appointment of an increasing number of permanent sheriffs.

Modifies a noun

  • tskany: SHERIFF TSKANY: I can't find him either.
  • arens: SHERIFF ARENS: Push comes to shove, I'm sure she does.
  • clerk: The return day is, in general terms, the date by which the defender must return any document to the sheriff clerk.
  • court: Many sheriff courts have a separate register of protests.
  • principal: Meeting with Sheriff Principal: Sheriff Principal has written to Gerry MacMillan to arrange a meeting with him.
  • officer: The alternative for a creditor is to instruct sheriff officers to serve these notices.

Noun used with modifier

  • deputy: Throw in a crooked deputy sheriff and an honest state cop.
  • county: States that provided judge advocate general county sheriff 's deputy.

Possessives

  • deputy: A sheriff's deputy found the Virginia man a short time later at another motel.
  • office: I'd left my keys on the table in our sheriff's office next door to the goal.
  • officer: You can then ask the sheriff's officer to enforce the judgment.

Preposition: of

county: Records of the audit of the annual accounts of the sheriff of each county made in the Exchequer.