duty-free

[ doo-tee-free, dyoo- ]

/ ˈdu tiˈfri, ˈdyu- /

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adjective, adverb

free of customs duty or tax on imported or exported goods: duty-free cargo; merchandise shipped duty-free.

pertaining to or selling goods for import or export free of the usual customs duty: a duty-free shop at the airport.

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Origin of duty-free

1680–90; duty (in the sense “an import or export tax”) + -free

Words nearby duty-free

dutiful, dutifully, Dutton, duty, duty-bound, duty-free, duty-free shop, duty officer, duty to retreat, duumvir, duumvirate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use duty-free in a sentence

In his view, a writer has only one duty: to be present in his books.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In other words, the free thinker defending freedom of thought.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Tend to your own garden, to quote the great sage of free speech, Voltaire, and invite people to follow your example.
How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech|Nick Gillespie|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The simple, awful truth is that free speech has never been particularly popular in America.
How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech|Nick Gillespie|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Cambodia, with its seemingly free press, is also a haven for foreign journalists.
Cambodia’s Smoke-and-Mirrors Democracy|David Shaftel|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
What need to look to right or left when you are swallowing up free mile after mile of dizzying road?
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
If we can free this State of Yankees, we will accomplish more than your armies down south have.
The Courier of the Ozarks|Byron A. Dunn
And as she hesitated between obedience to one and duty toward the other, her life, her love and future was in the balance.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
The voice of the orator peculiarly should be free from studied effects, and responsive to motive.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick

British Dictionary definitions for duty-free

duty-free

adjective, adverb

with exemption from customs or excise duties

noun

goods sold in a duty-free shop

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