shroff

American  

[shrof] / ʃrɒf /

noun

1. (in India) a banker or moneychanger.

2. (in East Asia, especially China) a local expert employed to test the purity of a coin’s metal content, especially silver or gold.

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verb (used with object)

1. to test (coins) to ascertain the purity of the metal content, especially silver or gold.

shroff British  

/ ʃrɒf /

noun

1. (in China, Japan, etc, esp formerly) an expert employed to separate counterfeit money or base coin from the genuine

2. (in India) a moneychanger or banker

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verb

1. (tr) to test (money) and separate out the counterfeit and base

Etymology

Origin of shroff

First recorded in 1610–20; earlier sharoffe from Portuguese xarrafo, probably from Gujarati śaraf, from Arabic ṣayrāfī “moneychanger”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shroff

The shroff will come to ask about his title-deed.

From Guns of the Gods by Talbot Mundy

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

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

Gandy never had dealings with a shroff in his life.

From The Story of the Gadsbys by Rudyard Kipling

She recognised Withers and the shroff and came forward.

From Civilization Tales of the Orient by Ellen Newbold La Motte