English

Noun

expiree ‎(plural expirees)

1. (Australia, historical) In penal colonies of early Australia, a convict whose sentence had been served.^[1]
   • 1984, Lloyd Evans, Paul Llewellyn Nicholls, Convicts and Colonial Society, 1788-1868, page 276,

     According to the census of 1870 the number of men still under the charge of the authorities is about four thousand, including those still in confinement; expirees being classed as free men.

   • 1985, University of Western Australia, Westerly, Volume 30, page 248,

     Most of them secured a husband within a year or so, but more remarkable is the fact that expirees competed very successfully against the colonial boys for brides. This was despite the knowledge that a woman who married an expiree lost her claim to respectability.

   • 1995, Royal Australian Historical Society, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 81, page 37,

     Many old expirees received terminal or geriatric care in the Society′s Asylum, but there was a gap between the expiration of their sentences and their requiring terminal care during which time they depended upon their own resources.

See also

• emancipist

References

1. ↑ 1916, Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia, Chapter V, .