When you sneak immigrants across the border in the back of your vehicle under some blankets, this is an example of when you 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 smocksmuggle
verb
smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·glesverb
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
intransitiveOrigin of smuggle
Probably Low German smukkeln, smuggeln or Middle Dutch smokkelenRelated Forms:
- smug′gler
noun
smuggle
(third-person singular simple present smuggles, present participle smuggling, simple past and past participle smuggled)
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 smjúga (“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").
