What is "ticket of leave"

Ticket \Tick"et\, n. [F. ['e]tiquette a label, ticket, fr. OF. estiquette, or OF. etiquet, estiquet; both of Teutonic origin, and akin to E. stick. See Stick, n. & v., and cf. Etiquette, Tick credit.] A small piece of paper, cardboard, or the like, serving as a notice, certificate, or distinguishing token of something. Specifically:

1. A little note or notice. [Obs. or Local]

   He constantly read his lectures twice a week for above forty years, giving notice of the time to his auditors in a ticket on the school doors.
   --Fuller.

2. A tradesman's bill or account. [Obs.]

   Note: Hence the phrase on ticket, on account; whence, by abbreviation, came the phrase on tick. See 1st Tick.

   Your courtier is mad to take up silks and velvets On ticket for his mistress.
   --J. Cotgrave.

3. A certificate or token of right of admission to a place of assembly, or of passage in a public conveyance; as, a theater ticket; a railroad or steamboat ticket.

4. A label to show the character or price of goods.

5. A certificate or token of a share in a lottery or other scheme for distributing money, goods, or the like.

6. (Politics) A printed list of candidates to be voted for at an election; a set of nominations by one party for election; a ballot. [U. S.]

   The old ticket forever! We have it by thirty-four votes.
   --Sarah Franklin (1766).

   Scratched ticket, a ticket from which the names of one or more of the candidates are scratched out.

   Split ticket, a ticket representing different divisions of a party, or containing candidates selected from two or more parties.

   Straight ticket, a ticket containing the regular nominations of a party, without change.

   Ticket day (Com.), the day before the settling or pay day on the stock exchange, when the names of the actual purchasers are rendered in by one stockbroker to another. [Eng.]
   --Simmonds.

   Ticket of leave, a license or permit given to a convict, or prisoner of the crown, to go at large, and to labor for himself before the expiration of his sentence, subject to certain specific conditions. [Eng.]
   --Simmonds.

   Ticket porter, a licensed porter wearing a badge by which he may be identified. [Eng.]

n. (context UK historical English) A licence or permit given to a convict or prisoner to go out and work before the expiration of his sentence, subject to certain conditions.

A ticket of leave was a document of parole issued to convicts who had shown they could now be trusted with some freedoms. Originally the ticket was issued in Britain and later adopted by the United States, Canada and Ireland.

Ticket of Leave is a 1936 British crime film directed by Michael Hankinson and starring Dorothy Boyd, John Clements and George Merritt. It was made as a quota quickie at Elstree Studios by the British subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. A woman joins forces with a criminal after he robs her flat. The title refers to the ticket of leave given to prisoners when they were released from jail.