Standard Lemma guide

ticket-of-leave

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A permit once granted to convicts allowing them to leave prison under certain circumstances; used especially of convicts transported to the British colonies

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1893:The prosecutrix was the wife of a ticket-of-leave man, named Daniel Jackson, and she was also separated from her husband, and lived for some time with a man named Clarke, who died on the day before the alleged robbery was committed. Clarke left a will bequeathing all his property to the prosecutrix, who, immediately on his death, possessed herself of sixty pound in money which was in his box, which she rolled up and placed in her bosom. Prosecutrix shortly after missed the money but could not account how it had parted from her, and the warrant for £30, and bank-note for £20, laid in the indictment, was part of the money so lost. The prosecutrix admitted, that both before, at the time, and some time after she missed the money, she was overcome with grief and brandy, but she could not say which of these acted most strongly. R v Smith. https://web.archive.org/web/20060918213824/http://www.law.mq.edu.au/scnsw/Cases1838-39/html/r_v_smith__no_2___1839.htm

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a permit formerly given to convicts allowing them to leave prison under specific restrictions

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pass, laissez passer

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.