smuggle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to import or export (goods) secretly, in violation of the law, especially without payment of legal duty.
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to bring, take, put, etc., surreptitiously.
She smuggled the gun into the jail inside a cake.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to import or export (prohibited or dutiable goods) secretly
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(tr; often foll by into or out of) to bring or take secretly, as against the law or rules
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to conceal; hide
Other Word Forms
- antismuggling adjective
- smuggler noun
- smuggling noun
- unsmuggled adjective
Etymology
Origin of smuggle
1680–90; < Low German smuggeln; cognate with German schmuggeln
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For the semi-final, one fan managed to smuggle a set of bagpipes into the arena.
From BBC
Hiding vegetables in food is usually framed as a parenting tactic — a way to smuggle spinach past a suspicious toddler.
From Salon
Rwanda’s economy has become one of Africa’s fastest-growing, thanks in part to smuggled Congolese minerals, according to economists.
The tests - carried out by five European countries using samples from his body smuggled out of the prison - showed the substance that killed him was developed from the toxin found in Ecuadorian dart frogs.
From BBC
Russian investigators have prevented a giant meteorite fragment being smuggled to Britain disguised as a garden ornament, the Federal Customs Service reported Thursday.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
