Definitions for sheriff
ˈʃɛr ɪfsher·iff

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sheriffnoun

   the principal law-enforcement officer in a county

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sheriffnoun

   excl. (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders and other duties.

2. sheriffnoun

   A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.

3. sheriffnoun

   A police officer, usually the chief of police for a county or other district.

4. Etymology: scīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. SHERIFFnoun

   An officer to whom is intrusted in each county the execution of the laws.

   Etymology: scyregepefa , Saxon, from scyre , a shire, and reve , a steward.

   A great pow’r of English and of Scots
   Are by the sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown. William Shakespeare.

   Concerning ministers of justice, the high sheriffs of the counties have been very ancient in this kingdom. Francis Bacon.

   Now may’rs and shrieves all hush’d and satiate lay. Alexander Pope.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sheriff

   A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly translated to English as sherif.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sheriff

   A sheriff is a government official, typically in a county or parish, responsible for keeping the peace and enforcing the law. Their duties usually include criminal investigations, traffic regulations, accident investigations, serving warrants and legal documents, preventive patrols, and maintaining jails. The specific responsibilities of a sheriff can vary widely depending on the region.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sheriffnoun

   the chief officer of a shire or county, to whom is intrusted the execution of the laws, the serving of judicial writs and processes, and the preservation of the peace

2. Etymology: [OE. shereve, AS. scr-gerfa; scr a shire + gerfa a reeve. See Shire, and Reeve, and cf. Shrievalty.]

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sheriff

   In principle, a sheriff is a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country. The word "sheriff" is a contraction of the term "shire reeve". The term, from the Old English scīrgerefa, designated a royal official responsible for keeping the peace throughout a shire or county on behalf of the king. The term was preserved in England notwithstanding the Norman Conquest. From the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms the term spread to several other regions, at an early point to Scotland, latterly to Ireland, and to the United States. Sheriffs exist in various countries: ⁕Sheriffs are administrative legal officials similar to bailiffs in the Republic of Ireland, Australia, and Canada. ⁕Sheriffs are judges in Scotland. ⁕Sheriff is a ceremonial position in England, Wales, and India. ⁕In the United States of America, the scope of a sheriff varies across states and counties. The sheriff is most often a county official, and serves as the arm of the county court; but some cities, such as those in the Commonwealth of Virginia, also have a sheriff's office that serves as the arm of the city court and jail. The sheriff always performs court duties such as administering the county or city jail, providing courtroom security and prisoner transportation, serving warrants, and serving process. In urban areas a sheriff may be restricted to those duties. Many other sheriffs and their deputies may serve as the principal police force.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sheriff

   sher′if, n. the governor of a shire: (English law) the chief officer of the crown in every county or shire, his duties being chiefly ministerial rather than judicial: (Scots law) the chief magistrate and judge of the county: in the United States the office of sheriff is mainly ministerial, his principal duties to maintain peace and order, attend courts, guard prisoners, serve processes, and execute judgments.—ns. Sher′iffalty, Sher′iffdom, Sher′iffship, the office or jurisdiction of a sheriff; Sher′iff-clerk, in Scotland the registrar of the sheriff's court, who has charge of the records of the court; Sher′iff-dep′ute (Scot.), the sheriff proper, so called since the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions in 1748 to distinguish him from the earlier heritable Sher′iff-prin′cipal, whose title is now merged in that of the Lord-lieutenant; Sher′iff-off′icer, in Scotland, an officer connected with the sheriff's court, who is charged with arrests, the serving of processes, &c.; Sher′iff-sub′stitute, the acting sheriff in a Scotch county or city, like the sheriff-depute appointed by the crown, but unlike the sheriff-depute forced to reside within his judicial district, and forbidden to take other employment; Un′der-sher′iff, the deputy of an English sheriff who performs the execution of writs. [A.S. scir-geréfa—scir (Eng. shire), geréfa, a governor; cog. with Ger. graf, a count.]

The Nuttall EncyclopediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Sheriff

   in England the chief officer of the Crown in every county, appointed annually, and intrusted with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of peace and order, with power to summon the posse commitatus. The office originated in Anglo-Saxon times, when it exercised wide judicial functions which have been gradually curtailed, and such duties as remain—the execution of writs, enforcement of legal decisions, &c., are mostly delegated to an under-sheriff (usually a lawyer) and bound-bailiffs, while the sheriff himself, generally a person of wealth (the office being unsalaried and compulsory, but not necessarily for more than one year) discharges merely honorary duties. In Scotland the sheriff, or sheriff-depute as he is called, is the chief judge of the county, and has under him one or more sheriffs-substitute, upon whom devolves the larger portion of the important and multifarious duties of his office. In America the sheriff is the chief administrative officer of the county, but exercises no judicial functions at all.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. sheriff

   Song lyrics by sheriff -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by sheriff on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. SHERIFF

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sheriff is ranked #7180 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Sheriff surname appeared 4,657 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 would have the surname Sheriff.
   
   60.7% or 2,830 total occurrences were White.
   29.5% or 1,377 total occurrences were Black.
   5.7% or 267 total occurrences were Asian.
   1.9% or 92 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   1.4% or 66 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   0.5% or 25 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

1. • Lawman

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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How to pronounce sheriff?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say sheriff in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of sheriff in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of sheriff in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of sheriff in a Sentence

1. Knox County:

   As the Sheriff of Knox County and a Veteran, I am honored to provide Mynatt Funeral Home with an escort as they transport Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss from Knoxville to the receiving funeral home in Alexandria. This young man deserves our honor, and respect as he sacrificed his life in service to our country, an escort is the least we can do to show our gratitude.

2. Ed Lee:

   There was nothing in [the sanctuary city policy] that prevented our Sheriff from picking up the phone, do I need to educate somebody about how to pick up a phone?

3. Brooke Buchanan:

   We are working closely with the local sheriff's department while they investigate what happened.

4. Sheriff Elegushi:

   Over there was where we had our tarred road before, we also had our electricity poles there and a health center... Sheriff Elegushi can see the remaining particles.

5. Waller County Sheriff Glen Smith:

   From my experience, groups like The New Black Panther Party are smart, they point their guns in the air and don’t look Waller County Sheriff Glen Smith in the eye and say ‘ I ’m going to kill Waller County Sheriff Glen Smith, ’ but say ‘ pigs in blanket, ’ or ‘ need to fry some bacon. ’.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=sheriff
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sheriff
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=sheriff
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sheriff
7. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=sheriff
8. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=sheriff
9. ^ The Nuttall Encyclopedia
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12342/pg12342-images.html#Sheriff
10. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
    https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html
11. ^ Usage in printed sources
    https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sheriff