Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a hanging.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

a basket or tub placed outside a prison to receive charitable gifts for the prisoners.

1600		Nashe Summer’s Last Will and Testament in Works (1905) III 286: That’s as plentifull almes for the plague as the sheriffes tub to them of Newgate.
1632		Massinger City-Madam I i: Did our charitie redeem thee out of prison, [...] When the Sheriffs basket, and his broken meat Were your Festivall exceedings?

handcuffs.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1839		Operative (London) 31 Mar. 11/3: The sheriff’s black bracelets lay strewn on the ground, / But the lad that had worn them could nowhere be found.
1873		Newton Wkly Ledger (MS) 16 Jan. 2/3: Without doubt sheriff’s bracelets become Swan more than any other man.
1885		Atlanta Constitution (GA) 1 June 2/5: He was soon in tow and as the sheriff’s bracelets encircled his wrists his eyes filled with tears.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1892		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 8 June 1/7: Potts [...] was furnished with a pair of sheriff’s bracelets.
1921		Sampson Democrat (Clinton, NC) 24 Mar. 1/5: When he hears his sentence, / And is marching back to jail, / He will think of the sheriff’s bracelets / [...] / And his heart will begin to fail.
1939		Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (NY) 26 Oct. 3/3: [headline] ‘Sheriff’s Bracelets’ Fail to Hold man.

a judicial hanging.

1818		T. Brown Brighton I 52: We wonder not at the noble peer’s having checked an honest tear when his friend [...] got a sheriff’s breakfast* [note] * A sheriff's breakfast is a hearty choak and a caper.
1845		C. Rowcroft Tales of the Colonies 268: To-morrow he will have a sheriff’s breakfast, eh ! old boy, a hearty choke and a caper !
1862		Bentley’s Misc. 335: If there’s one thing I hate more than another, it’s being obliged to swallow my victuals as if I was at a sheriff’s breakfast — a bolt and a drop — you understand!
1883		L.S. Wingfield Abigel Rowe 122: He got off with a month’s imprisonment, and for that time, at least, escaped the proverbial sheriff’s breakfast — a hearty choke and a caper.

a prison; often incl. a sheriff’s name.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1889		Choctaw Herald (Butler, AL) 7 Nov. 3/2: Sheriff Gavin’s hotel de jail has but a few boarders at this time.
1895		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 10 Sept. 1/5: Marshall Matthews cracked him over the head a few times and [...] landed him in Sheriff Sory’s hotel on jail avenue.
1928		Clarksdale Dly Register (MS) 30 Nov. 2/4: Three new guests were added to the roster of Sheriff Matthews’ jail hotel [...] on a charge of disturbing the peace.
1957		Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI) 22 Nov. 32/3: It was ‘The Sheriff’s new Hotel’ Jailer K Montgomery and his charges moved into the New Hotel.
1983		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 27 Dec. 52/1: There are now enough laws such as spitting on a public walkway [...] to keep an individual in the sheriff’s hotel (jail) if the system choses.

the hangman.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

two painted posts, set up at the sheriff’s door, to which proclamations are affixed.

1599

Jonson Every Man out of his Humour III iii: How long should I be, ere I should put off To the lord chancellor’s tomb, or the shrives’ posts?

see under dance v.