ticket of leave
Preserved but no longer current.
A warrant given to convicts to hay© their liberty on condition of good behaviour; hence, Ticket-of-leave man, a con- vict freed from prison but obliged to report himself to the police from time to time until his sentence was completed. The system is now discontinued.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “ticket of leave” mean?
A warrant given to convicts to hay© their liberty on condition of good behaviour; hence, Ticket-of-leave man, a con- vict freed from prison but obliged to report himself to the police from time to time until his sentence was completed. The system is now discontinued.
Is “ticket of leave” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.