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.
The exportation of unmanufactured brass, of what is called gun-metal, bell-metal, and shroff metal, still continues to be prohibited.
From An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Smith, Adam
Gaddy never had dealings with a shroff in his life.
From Soldiers Three by Kipling, Rudyard
I can borrow it again from the shroff, just for the present.
From Captain Desmond, V.C. by Diver, Maud
So Withers and the shroff continued their desolate journey, day by day, across the plains, over such roads as are not, save in North China.
From Civilization Tales of the Orient by La Motte, Ellen Newbold
The shroff will come to ask about his title-deed.
From Guns of the Gods by Mundy, Talbot
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.
