smuggle

American  

[smuhg-uhl] / ˈsmʌg əl /

verb (used with object)

smuggled, smuggling

1. to import or export (goods) secretly, in violation of the law, especially without payment of legal duty.

2. to bring, take, put, etc., surreptitiously.

   She smuggled the gun into the jail inside a cake.

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verb (used without object)

smuggled, smuggling

1. to import, export, or convey goods surreptitiously or in violation of the law.

smuggle British  

/ ˈsmʌɡəl /

verb

1. to import or export (prohibited or dutiable goods) secretly

2. (tr; often foll by into or out of) to bring or take secretly, as against the law or rules

3. to conceal; hide

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Other Word Forms

• antismuggling adjective
• smuggler noun
• smuggling noun
• unsmuggled adjective

Etymology

Origin of smuggle

1680–90; < Low German smuggeln; cognate with German schmuggeln

Example Sentences

Super Micro got hit hard last week after one of its board members was arrested by federal authorities under charges of helping to smuggle Nvidia chips to China.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Bible that Nollie had smuggled to her she had torn up and passed around, book by book.

From Literature

Two men appeared in a Nairobi court on Tuesday accused of attempting to smuggle thousands of ants to China, a lucrative trade exposed last year in the east African country.

From Barron's

But 35-year-old Talankin's film -- based on hours of footage he had smuggled out of Russia -- beat the odds and took home the statuette instead on Sunday.

From Barron's

When Sinners director Ryan Coogler went to the movies as a child, he would smuggle in some snacks - and get particularly creative with the cinema's drinks machine.

From BBC

Related Words

• export
• hide