smuggle

smuggle Definition

smug·gle (smug′əl)

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

Etymology: < LowG smuggeln, akin to OE smugan, to creep: for IE base see smock

intransitive verb

to practice smuggling; be a smuggler

smuggle Related Forms

smug′·gler noun

smuggle Synonyms

bring in contraband, slip by the customs, get around the customs, run contraband*; see hide 1.

smuggle Usage Examples

Object

cigarette: Even buying smuggled cigarettes would cost £ 1,000 per year.
booze: I wonder if he's smuggled any booze into the ground for the break?
tobacco: The duty lost on smuggled tobacco could pay twice over for free long term care for the elderly.
cocaine: Toby Muse: " US troops tried to smuggle cocaine " , The Guardian, April 9, 2005.
antiquity: In April, Yemeni police arrested a three-man gang trying to smuggle pre-Islamic antiquities over the border into Saudi Arabia.
diamond: So the thieves decide to smuggle the diamond to London.

Preposition: on

Preposition: through

custom: Guns and ammunition are much more difficult to smuggle through customs than drugs are!

Preposition: over

border: REYES: The set of rubbings the man smuggled over the border doesn't match the rubbings you took.

Preposition: into

country: Check out the UK purchase circle to see which DVDs us Brits are trying to smuggle into the country at the moment.
prison: The letter was smuggled into the prison via a policeman whom Anibalzinho knew, he added.
camp: The French newspapers, smuggled into camp, carried stories of axis defeats on all fronts.

Modifying Another Word

illegally: A year ago the Thai embassy in London received strong evidence that the orang-utans had been smuggled illegally from Indonesia.
abroad: Warbeck was purported to have been rescued before his brother Edward V had been murdered in the Tower and smuggled abroad to safety.
back: These cigarettes are then entering the black market, to be smuggled back into the UK.
away: At a further meeting the Riot Act was read and the vicar was smuggled away by the military.
then: The baby chimpanzees are then smuggled by boat or plane, across the world.
often: These DVDs are often smuggled by criminal networks involved in large scale piracy.

Followed by an intransitive particle

Preposition: in

container: This is because cigarettes smuggled in freight containers are never purchased tax-paid anywhere.

Browse dictionary entries near smuggle