shroff
Americannoun
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(in India) a banker or moneychanger.
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(in East Asia, especially China) a local expert employed to test the purity of a coin’s metal content, especially silver or gold.
verb (used with object)
noun
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(in China, Japan, etc, esp formerly) an expert employed to separate counterfeit money or base coin from the genuine
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(in India) a moneychanger or banker
verb
Etymology
Origin of shroff
First recorded in 1610–20; earlier sharoffe from Portuguese xarrafo, probably from Gujarati śaraf, from Arabic ṣayrāfī “moneychanger”
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.
She recognised Withers and the shroff and came forward.
From Civilization Tales of the Orient by Ellen Newbold La Motte
No. Did he call any shroff, any banker, any one person concerned in the payment of the money, or any one person in the management of the revenue?
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
The Red Wand stood by the abacus, rattling the brown beads with flying fingers, like a shroff.
From Dragon's blood by Henry Milner Rideout
The slayer hid his knife; The robber laid his plunder back; the shroff Counted full tale of coins; all evil hearts Grew gentle, kind hearts gentler, as the balm Of that divinest Daybreak lightened Earth.
From The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold
Gaddy never had dealings with a shroff in his life.
From Soldiers Three by Rudyard Kipling
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.
