bootleg
noun
alcoholic liquor unlawfully made, sold, or transported, without registration or payment of taxes.
bootlegging
-
present participleof bootleg.present participle
A verb form that is used in progressive verb constructions and may also function as a modifier or a gerund.
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.
Ryan Coogler’s bootlegging, Southern vampire blockbuster is smart, ambitious, original and masterfully executed — a classic best picture contender.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025
To combat the bootlegging, his team chose to persuade major retailers to buy scrunchies from them rather than seek damages through litigation.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2022
Such ostentatious displays of wealth helped place Olmstead’s bootlegging racket in the crosshairs of the Seattle Prohibition office, which moved all its manpower and resources to take him down as quickly as possible.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2021
This week, more than a century later, officials in Clark County, Idaho, announced that Joseph Henry Loveless, the bootlegging escape artist, had been found.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2020
Foreign bootlegging of minerals is so thorough that our neighbor the French Congo, without a single diamond mine in its borders, is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of diamonds.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
