bootlegger

[ boot-leg-er ]

noun

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.

Origin of bootlegger

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

The National Football League's New York Giants franchise was founded in 1925 by a bootlegger named Tim Mara.
Will a Criminal Enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame? | Evan Weiner | February 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He seeks to clear up some myths about Kennedy—he was, for instance, never a bootlegger—and offer a truthful portrait of the man.
“The Patriarch”: Joseph Kennedy Sr.’s Outsized Life | Jacob Heilbrunn | November 21, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
To prep for his role as a gun-slinging bootlegger in the film, LaBeouf packed on 40 pounds and guzzled moonshine.
Shia LaBeouf’s New Chapter: ‘Lawless,’ Dropping Acid, Unsimulated Sex | Marlow Stern | August 29, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
There he insinuates himself with the locals as the new bootlegger and begins stalking Luce and her two charges.
Charles Frazier in the Fast Lane | Malcolm Jones | October 14, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
Indeed, one could claim that her vast business empire has been built on the memories of her days as a fancified bootlegger.
Behind the Glow | Kevin Sessums | October 6, 2008 | THE DAILY BEAST

Mr. Rosen was by way of being—by a roundabout way of being—what technically is known as a bootlegger.
Sundry Accounts | Irvin S. Cobb
According to the estimate of the narrator, a bootlegger passes through Malone every eight minutes.
Pieces of Hate | Heywood Broun
The blow of her stick had half blinded the bootlegger's one eye, but he was coming toward her.
The Country Beyond | James Oliver Curwood
I imagine, of course, as I said to Mr. Hampton here earlier, that our bootlegger friends set the fire.
The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards | Gerald Breckenridge
Soon he saw that he was flying faster than the bootlegger ahead of him.
The Flying Reporter | Lewis E. (Lewis Edwin) Theiss

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