bootlegger

American  

[boot-leg-er] / ˈbutˌlɛg ər /

noun

1. a person who makes or sells liquor or other goods illegally.

   A bootlegger named George Cassiday secretly supplied members of Congress with liquor during Prohibition.

   The sort of criminals of interest to the piracy commission are large-scale DVD bootleggers, not individual downloaders.

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Etymology

Origin of bootlegger

bootleg ( def. ) + -er ¹

Explanation

A bootlegger is someone who sells illegal goods. Today, bootleggers are most likely to sell pirated movies or music. This word comes from bootleg and, in particular, the trick of hiding a flask inside a boot. Bootleggers smuggle illegal things, and sometimes legal goods too, in order to avoid paying taxes. During Prohibition in the U.S., bootleggers supplied speakeasies with alcohol. There are a number of other, less common words inspired by bootlegger: meatlegger was coined during World War II's meat rationing and booklegger refers to someone who imports banned books.

Example Sentences

She became a wife at 15, a mother at 16 and a grandmother in her early 30s, married to a womanizing sometime bootlegger who managed her to stardom.

From New York Times • Oct. 4, 2022

In 1934, Carl Kaelin, a failed chicken farmer and former whiskey bootlegger, scraped together $680 and, alongside his wife Margaret, opened an eponymous family restaurant.

From Salon • Sep. 7, 2021

Outlaw and bootlegger Joseph Henry Loveless’ bones were found in an Idaho cave on two separate dates, in 1979 and 1991.

From Fox News • Feb. 14, 2020

Complications arise when a police captain tries to bring a powerful bootlegger to justice.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 20, 2019

He trembled with the thought of the white men in the bank—the men who helped him buy and mortgage houses—discovering that this raggedy bootlegger was his sister.

From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison