smuggle

smug·gle

Criminals tried to smuggle drugs over the border by hiding it in a tire.

verb

To smuggle is to move someone or something illegally or without following proper procedure or protocol.

When you sneak immigrants across the border in the back of your vehicle under some blankets, this is an example of when you smuggle.

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"smuggle." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle>.

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smuggle. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle

smuggle

transitive verb

-·gled, -·gling

to bring into or take out of a country secretly, under illegal conditions or without paying the required import or export duties
to bring, take, carry, etc. secretly or stealthily

Origin of smuggle

from Low German smuggeln, akin to Old English smugan, to creep: for Indo-European base see smock

to practice smuggling; be a smuggler

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MLA Style

"smuggle." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle>.

APA Style

smuggle. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle

smuggle

verb

smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·gles

verb

transitive

a. To bring into a country (a prohibited item) secretively and intentionally, in violation of the law.
b. To bring into a country (an item) secretively and intentionally without declaring the item to customs officials and paying the associated duties or taxes on it, in violation of the law.
To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth: smuggled homemade popcorn into the theater.

verb

intransitive

To engage in smuggling.

Origin of smuggle

Probably Low German smukkeln, smuggeln or Middle Dutch smokkelen

Related Forms:

smug′gler
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"smuggle." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 August 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle>.

APA Style

smuggle. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/smuggle

Verb

(third-person singular simple present smuggles, present participle smuggling, simple past and past participle smuggled)

(intransitive) To import or export, illicitly or by stealth, without paying lawful customs charges or duties
To bring in surreptitiously
(slang) To thrash or be thrashed by a bear's claws, or to swipe at or be swiped at by a person's arms in a bearlike manner.

Origin

From earlier smuckle, either from Dutch smokkelen (“to smuggle"), a frequentative form of Middle Dutch smÅ«ken (“to act secretly, be sneaky"), or from Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German smuggeln. The Dutch and Low German words are both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *smeuganÄ… (“to snuggle, cling to"), from Proto-Indo-European *smewk-, *smewg- (“to slip, glide; be slimy"). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smukkeln (“to move insidiously, smuggle"), West Frisian smokkelje (“to smuggle"), German schmuggeln (“to smuggle"), Danish smugle (“to smuggle"), Swedish smuggla (“to smuggle"). Related also to Icelandic smjÃºga (“to creep, penetrate"), Swedish smyga (“to sneak, slip, crawl, lurk, steal"), German schmiegen (“to nestle, wrap, snuggle"), Old English smÄ“ogan, smÅ«gan (“to creep, crawl, move gradually, penetrate").