gray market

American  

noun

1. a market operating within the law but charging prices substantially below list prices or those fixed by an official agency.

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Etymology

Origin of gray market

First recorded in 1930–35; gray ¹ ( def. ) (in the sense “indeterminate or intermediate in character” + market ( )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gray market

This growing gray market has placed Taiwan under pressure to tighten regulatory boundaries, as the island manufactures most of the world’s advanced computing components.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Part of the issue is a vast gray market and lack of regulation.

From Barron's ● May 21, 2026

There are also questions about how people are obtaining the peptides they want in a regulatory gray market.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 15, 2026

But the group argues the public would be safer if peptides were handled by regulated compounding pharmacies instead of the gray market.

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026

There were also dark secrets people didn’t much talk about, along with a gray market of gossip that could spread the ill-informed rumor as fast as any IM or text network.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel