(India) A provider of financial services, especially a small-scale independent banker or money changer or (historical) a local expert at detecting bad coin.
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The sheraffs are poore and begerly.
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1618, cited in William Foster, The English Factories in India..., page 8:
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Amongſt whom were Shroffs, or Money-changers.
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1698, John Fryer, “Views the Malabar and Canatick Coasts up to Bombaim”, in A New Account of East-India and Persia, in Eight Letters. Being Nine Years Travels, Begun 1672. And Finished 1681. […], London: […] R[obert] R[oberts] for Ri[chard] Chiswell, letter I (Containing a Twelve Month’s Voyage Through Divers Climates), page 52:
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The breakfast soon dispatch'd, they're off,To borrow money from a shroff.
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1816, 'Quiz', The Grand Master..., canto ii, ll. 18 f.:
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Racing leads to the shroff quicker than anything else.
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1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Broken-Link Handicap’, Plain Tales from the Hills, fol. 2005, page 110: