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
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have smuggledperfect
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has smuggledperfect 3rd person singular
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are smugglingprogressive
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has been smugglingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am smugglingprogressive 1st person singular
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smugglessingular 3rd person
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smugglingparticiple
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have been smugglingperfect progressive
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is smugglingprogressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had smuggledperfect
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were smugglingprogressive plural
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had been smugglingperfect progressive
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smuggledsimple
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was smugglingprogressive singular
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smuggledparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of smuggle
1680–90; < Low German smuggeln; cognate with German schmuggeln
Explanation
If you import or export something without paying customs duties, you smuggle it. All kinds of things have been smuggled over the years: art, alcohol, drugs, animals, even tea! The verb smuggle has expanded to generally mean to bring something in or out in secret, especially if doing so breaks a rule or a law. Kids may smuggle candy into a movie theater so they don't have to pay the high prices at the concession stand. You may smuggle Christmas presents into the house so your kids don't see them. Illegal immigrants may be smuggled into the country for a fee, but if caught they can be deported.
Vocabulary lists containing smuggle
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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The Circuit
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Enrique's Journey
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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.
Federal authorities charged a Daly City man in an international trafficking plot to smuggle nearly 300 poached loggerhead musk turtles from Florida to Taiwan.
From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2026
The server maker needed a boost after the federal government charged a Super Micro co-founder and two other individuals—though not the company itself—in an alleged plan to smuggle U.S.-assembled servers to China.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
Independent benchmarks confirm that Pangram outperforms every other detector tested and is robust against “humanizers,” or software designed to smuggle A.I. text past detectors.
From Slate • Apr. 17, 2026
A Chinese national has been sentenced to a year in prison for attempting to smuggle thousands of live queen garden ants out of Kenya.
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
We hoped that they could smuggle us out of Poland.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
