ticket of leave
a. A ticket or document giving leave or permission; an order, a permit (rare). In specific use, a licence to be at large after the expiration of part of the sentence, formerly granted to convicts in the Australian colonies; after 1840, the usual colloquial name for an ‘order of licence’ giving a convict his liberty under certain restrictions before his sentence has expired, the proportion remitted being dependent on his conduct and industry. Now Hist.
| 1732 Acc. Workhouses 17 That no person presume to go out of the street door without a Ticket of Leave, to return in good order. 1801 Hist. Rec. New S. Wales (1896) IV. 300 All prisoners whose terms of transportation is [sic] not expired and are off the stores, or those with settlers, are to attend at the Secretary's office at Sydney..to receive their tickets of leave. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 293 Whether in depriving an individual of a ticket of leave, or sentencing him to a penal gang, the periods should be always limited. 1843 Act 6 & 7 Vict. c. 7 (title) An Act to amend the Law affecting transported Convicts with respect to Pardons and Tickets of Leave. Ibid., Permission to such Felons..to employ themselves for their own Benefit (which Permissions are usually called and known by the Name of Tickets of Leave). 1876 Yale Rev. XXV. 769 Those [slaves] who went visiting, came for a ‘ticket of leave’..stating in a line or two the name of the person, and where he was going. 1895 Times 16 Jan. 14/5 A long list of former convictions, beginning in 1852, was proved against the prisoner... He was now on ‘ticket-of-leave’. 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings v. 111 On the last occasion when I was let loose from the front on ticket-of-leave, I added twenty-four hours to my Blighty period. 1918 [see coupon 4]. |
b. attrib. or Comb. (hyphened), as ticket-of-leave holder, ticket of leave man, ticket of leave woman.
| 1807 Hist. Rec. New S. Wales (1898) VI. 292 A considerable injury to the colony had crept in: that of ticket-of leave [hyphenation sic] men—men that were taken off the stores, and permitted to work for themselves. 1837 J. D. Lang N.S. Wales I. 411 The overseer, on well-regulated farms, is generally a ticket-of-leave man or emancipated convict. Ibid. II. 19 A ticket-of-leave holder..is confined to a particular district, and is liable to lose his ticket for various petty misdemeanours. 1862 Lond. Rev. 30 Aug. 178 A great proportion of these crimes were committed by ‘Ticket-of-leave Men’. 1871 Daily News 25 July, In one of the..most fashionable districts of London many hundreds of domestic servants are ticket-of-leave women. |
Hence ˌticket-of-ˈleaver, a ticket-of-leave man; ˌticket-of-ˈleavism (nonce-wd.), the system or operation of tickets of leave.
| 1852 Mundy Our Antipodes v. (1855) 107 The overseer..may be a hireling convict—emancipist, expirer, or ticket-of-leaver. 1857 Tait's Mag. XXIV. 41 The atmosphere itself was redolent of ticket-of-leaveism. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xlv, The oft-disappointed ticket-of-leaver was again installed in a butler's pantry. |