free port
Americannoun
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a port or special section of a port where goods may be unloaded, stored, and shipped without payment of customs duties.
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a port open under equal conditions to all traders.
noun
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a port open to all commercial vessels on equal terms
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Also called: free zone. a zone adjoining a port that permits the duty-free entry of foreign goods intended for re-export
Etymology
Origin of free port
First recorded in 1705–15
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.
Odesa’s free port status financed its extraordinary architectural flowering in the 1800s and helped build its vibrant multiethnic society.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2024
It may be that a free port and international status for the town, with Italian sovereignty in cultural questions, would best serve the Allied and European cause, especially during the years of transition.
From The Guardian ● May 6, 2020
Jonty Bloom reports from Teesside, which plans to become the UK's first free port, offering customs-free imports and hoping to bring back manufacturing jobs.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2018
As fascism tore apart Europe, Shanghai’s status as a free port made it a magnet for refugees.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2014
Shall there be a free port in one State, and onerous duties in another?
From The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One In The Government of The United States. Its Cause, and How it Should be Met by A. D. Steight
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
