sheriff

CEFRB1

/ˈʃɛɹɪf/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An elected law officer in some parts of the United States.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    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.

Examples

  • The sheriff established order in the town.

  • The sheriff beat the suspect until he was almost dead.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

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

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

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To carry out the duties of a sheriff.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After a week-long manhunt, the county blank finally captured the escaped prisoner.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.