Sheriff

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sheriff \Sher"iff\, n. [OE. shereve, AS. sc[imac]r-ger?fa;
     sc[imac]r a shire + ger?fa a reeve. See Shire, and {Reeve},
     and cf. {Shrievalty}.]
     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.


     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: In England, sheriffs are appointed by the king. In the
           United States, sheriffs are elected by the legislature
           or by the citizens, or appointed and commissioned by
           the executive of the State. The office of sheriff in
           England is judicial and ministerial. In the United
           States, it is mainly ministerial. The sheriff, by
           himself or his deputies, executes civil and criminal
           process throughout the county, has charge of the jail
           and prisoners, attends courts, and keeps the peace. His
           judicial authority is generally confined to
           ascertaining damages on writs of inquiry and the like.
           Sheriff, in Scotland, called sheriff depute, is
           properly a judge, having also certain ministerial
           powers. Sheriff clerk is the clerk of the Sheriff's
           Court in Scotland. Sheriff's Court in London is a
           tribunal having cognizance of certain personal actions
           in that city. --Wharton, Tomlins. Erskine.
           [1913 Webster] Sheriffship
           Sheriffry
           Sheriffdom
           Sheriffalty

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sheriff
       n : the principal law-enforcement officer in a county

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  47 Moby Thesaurus words for "sheriff":
     G-man, MP, bailiff, beadle, beagle, bound bailiff, captain,
     catchpole, chief of police, commissioner, constable, deputy,
     deputy sheriff, detective, fed, federal, flic, gendarme,
     government man, inspector, lictor, lieutenant, mace-bearer,
     marshal, mounted policeman, narc, officer, patrolman,
     peace officer, police captain, police commissioner,
     police constable, police inspector, police matron, police officer,
     police sergeant, policeman, policewoman, portreeve, reeve,
     roundsman, sergeant, sergeant at arms, superintendent, tipstaff,
     tipstaves, trooper
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SHERIFF. The name of the chief officer of the county. In Latin he is called 
  vice comes, because in England he represented the comes or earl. His name is 
  said to be derived from the Saxon seyre, shire or county, and reve, keeper, 
  bailiff, or guardian. 
       2. The general duties of the sheriff are, 1st. To keep the peace within 
  the county; he may apprehend, and commit to prison all persons who break the 
  peace or attempt to break it, and bind any one in a recognizance to keep the 
  peace. He is required ex officio, to pursue and take all traitors, 
  murderers, felons and rioters. He has the keeping of the county gaol and he 
  is bound to defend it against all attacks. He may command the posse 
  comitatus. (q.v.) 
       3.-2d. In his ministerial capacity, the sheriff is bound to execute 
  within his county or bailiwick, all process issuing from the courts of the 
  commonwealth. 
       4.-3d. The sheriff also possesses a judicial capacity, but this is very 
  much circumscribed to what it was at common law in England. It is now 
  generally confined to ascertain damages on writs of inquiry and the like. 
       5. Generally speaking the sheriff has no authority out of his county. 2 
  Rolle's Rep. 163; Plowd, 37 a. He may, however, do mere ministerial acts out 
  of his county, as making a return. Dalt. Sh. 22. Vide, generally, the 
  various Digests and Abridgments, h.t.; Dalt. Sher.; Wats. Off. and Duty of 
  Sheriff; Wood's Inst. 75; 18 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 177; 2 Phil. Ev. 213; Chit. 
  Pr. Index, h.t.; Chit. Pr. Law, Index, h.t. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  SHERIFF, n.  In America the chief executive office of a country, whose
  most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern
  States, are the catching and hanging of rogues.
  
      John Elmer Pettibone Cajee
      (I write of him with little glee)
      Was just as bad as he could be.
  
      'Twas frequently remarked:  "I swon!
      The sun has never looked upon
      So bad a man as Neighbor John."
  
      A sinner through and through, he had
      This added fault:  it made him mad
      To know another man was bad.
  
      In such a case he thought it right
      To rise at any hour of night
      And quench that wicked person's light.
  
      Despite the town's entreaties, he
      Would hale him to the nearest tree
      And leave him swinging wide and free.
  
      Or sometimes, if the humor came,
      A luckless wight's reluctant frame
      Was given to the cheerful flame.
  
      While it was turning nice and brown,
      All unconcerned John met the frown
      Of that austere and righteous town.
  
      "How sad," his neighbors said, "that he
      So scornful of the law should be --
      An anar c, h, i, s, t."
  
      (That is the way that they preferred
      To utter the abhorrent word,
      So strong the aversion that it stirred.)
  
      "Resolved," they said, continuing,
      "That Badman John must cease this thing
      Of having his unlawful fling.
  
      "Now, by these sacred relics" -- here
      Each man had out a souvenir
      Got at a lynching yesteryear --
  
      "By these we swear he shall forsake
      His ways, nor cause our hearts to ache
      By sins of rope and torch and stake.
  
      "We'll tie his red right hand until
      He'll have small freedom to fulfil
      The mandates of his lawless will."
  
      So, in convention then and there,
      They named him Sheriff.  The affair
      Was opened, it is said, with prayer.
                                                       J. Milton Sloluck