duty-free

[doo-tee-free, dyoo-]

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.

Origin of duty-free

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for duty-free

Contemporary Examples of duty-free

Even more than competition to his bridge, Maroun objects to competition for his duty-free gasoline stations.
The Price of the Tea Party
David Frum
June 16, 2012
One communicates with her by text, if at all, meeting only in the duty-free zones of strip clubs and hotel suites.
Rise of the Alpha Female
Lizzie Skurnick
December 11, 2009

Historical Examples of duty-free

If you except coals, however, the rest are almost all duty-free.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
For a handsome man I'll admit he was the duty-free merchandise.
Roads of Destiny
O. Henry
The same privilege of exporting cloth of Cornish manufacture, duty-free, was confirmed to them by the twenty-first of Elizabeth.'
Cornish Worthies, Volume 1 (of 2)
Walter H. Tregellas
The law for the encouragement of the coinage, by rendering it duty-free, was first enacted during the reign of Charles II.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith
If taken out for exportation, to be duty-free; proper security being always given that they should be so exported.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith

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