sheriff
Americannoun
-
sheriffs
plural
-
the law-enforcement officer of a county or other civil subdivision of a state.
-
(formerly) an important civil officer in an English shire.
noun
-
(in the US) the chief law-enforcement officer in a county: popularly elected, except in Rhode Island
-
(in England and Wales) the chief executive officer of the Crown in a county, having chiefly ceremonial duties
-
(in Scotland) a judge in any of the sheriff courts
-
(in Australia) an administrative officer of the Supreme Court, who enforces judgments and the execution of writs, empanels juries, etc
-
(in New Zealand) an officer of the High Court
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sheriff
before 1050; Middle English sher ( r ) ef, Old English scīrgerēfa. See shire, reeve 1
Explanation
A sheriff is the top-ranking officer in a county police force. Unlike police in a city or town, the sheriff is an elected official. In most states, the sheriff serves a four-year term, and she oversees a department of police officers. A sheriff's job varies from state to state, but it generally includes enforcing the law, making arrests within the county, traffic control, prisoner transportation, and crime investigation. The Old English root word is scirgerefa, "representative of royal authority in a shire." Sheriff has been used in the United States since the 1600's.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“The sheriff evacuated 60,000 people out of a portion of Spokane in a matter of two hours without injury or accident,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the sheriff opened his late-morning news briefing by apologizing for any confusion he might have caused about the department’s theory of the case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Lamb doesn’t describe himself as a constitutional sheriff.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
His haul ended up including two taxidermy squirrels as well — one dressed as a sheriff and the other posed to look like it is drinking out of a Budweiser can.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Yet the sheriff had never investigated Hale, nor had other local lawmen—an oversight that no longer seemed incidental.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
And whether or not he knew it, it also made him a representative of the community of constitutional sheriffs.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
I saw two officials in sheriffs uniforms, one of whom was from Nebraska.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Legislators could amend the state Constitution to make sheriffs appointed instead of elected — the same as police chiefs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
As one of the sheriffs on the tour said to me, “Generally, autopsies don’t lie.”
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2025
But the Joneses knew there were more sheriffs lurking in towns throughout Illinois and across the northern states.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
