bootleg

[ boot-leg ]

/ ˈbutˌlɛg /

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See synonyms for: bootleg / bootlegged / bootlegging / bootlegs on Thesaurus.com

noun

alcoholic liquor unlawfully made, sold, or transported, without registration or payment of taxes.

the part of a boot that covers the leg.

something, as a recording, made, reproduced, or sold illegally or without authorization: a flurry of bootlegs to cash in on the rock star's death.

verb (used with object), boot·legged, boot·leg·ging.

to deal in (liquor or other goods) unlawfully.

verb (used without object), boot·legged, boot·leg·ging.

to make, transport, or sell something, especially liquor, illegally or without registration or payment of taxes.

adjective

made, sold, or transported unlawfully.

illegal or clandestine.

of or relating to bootlegging.

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Origin of bootleg

An Americanism first recorded in 1625–35; boot¹ + leg; secondary senses arose from practice of hiding a liquor bottle in the leg of one's boot

OTHER WORDS FROM bootleg

boot·leg·ger, noun

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

How to use bootleg in a sentence

The bootleg meeting’s final speaker was Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto, the cognitive psychologist and computer scientist responsible for some of the biggest breakthroughs in deep nets.
Artificial Neural Nets Finally Yield Clues to How Brains Learn|Anil Ananthaswamy|February 18, 2021|Quanta Magazine
For a private event, copyright owners are unlikely to notice or shut everything down mid-event, but don’t use the tips in this article to broadcast a bootleg concert to thousands of people.
How to livestream an event for all your friends and family|Harry Guinness|November 25, 2020|Popular-Science
He says this routinely resulted in a handful of patients being held for days in a crowded ER “overflow” area with no beds or privacy — just chairs and a single bathroom — serving as a sort of “bootleg inpatient psychiatric unit.”
Investors Extracted $400 Million From a Hospital Chain That Sometimes Couldn’t Pay for Medical Supplies or Gas for Ambulances|by Peter Elkind with Doris Burke|September 30, 2020|ProPublica
But he'd been trailing McFann for bootlegging and was pretty sure Jim was riding a horse with a broken shoe.
Mystery Ranch|Arthur Chapman

To be sure, he charged them off heavily, so there was little cash left from the half-breed's bootlegging operations.
Mystery Ranch|Arthur Chapman
Talpers had profited most by the bootlegging operations carried on by the pair, though Jim had done most of the dangerous work.
Mystery Ranch|Arthur Chapman
It made us fear that perhaps some of his bootlegging yarns had been colored with the ready fiction of his business.
Pieces of Hate|Heywood Broun
They hear of bootlegging and blind tigers among certain foreign groups.
John Wesley, Jr.|Dan B. Brummitt

British Dictionary definitions for bootleg

bootleg

/ (ˈbuːtˌlɛɡ) /

verb -legs, -legging or -legged

to make, carry, or sell (illicit goods, esp alcohol)

noun

something made or sold illicitly, such as alcohol during Prohibition in the US

an illegally made copy of a CD, tape, etc

adjective

produced, distributed, or sold illicitlybootleg whisky; bootleg tapes

Derived forms of bootleg

bootlegger, noun

Word Origin for bootleg

C17: see boot 1, leg; from the practice of smugglers of carrying bottles of liquor concealed in their boots

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bootleg

Origin of bootleg

OTHER WORDS FROM bootleg

Words related to bootleg

How to use bootleg in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for bootleg

Derived forms of bootleg

Word Origin for bootleg