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
A free port, sometimes called a free trade zone or special economic zone, is normally an area of a country where its taxes and tariffs do not apply.
From BBC • Nov. 28, 2018
As a free port, it was excluded from Europe’s customs union, allowing it to build up its trading and services activities on advantageous transit and taxation terms.
From New York Times • May 5, 2016
France.—Marseilles was a free port in the middle ages, and so was Dunkirk when it formed part of Flanders.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 1 "Franciscans" to "French Language" by Various
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.
