Word.ws English Dictionary

smuggle

/ˈsmʌɡəl/

smuggle verb: to import or export, illicitly or by stealth, without paying lawful customs charges or duties.

Verb

smuggle (third-person singular simple present smuggles, present participle smuggling, simple past and past participle smuggled)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To import or export, illicitly or by stealth, without paying lawful customs charges or duties
    • A lorry driver who smuggled illegal immigrants into the UK in the back of his trailer has been jailed.2018 July 20, “Lorry driver jailed for smuggling illegal immigrants into UK”, in cps.gov.uk, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 20 Jul 2018
    • 'Smuggling was a way of life here, with no stigma attached,' David explained. His own granny used to smuggle out rabbit meat, tied to her body, and bring back such coveted Italian goods as chocolate, coffee and brooms. 'Brooms?' I asked him in disbelief. 'Yes, ordinary sorghum brooms, which were in...2026 June 24, Vitali Vitaliev, “Life on the borderline”, in RAIL, number 1064, page 68
    Synonyms:
    run
  2. (transitive) To bring in surreptitiously
    • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/
      While Collins does include a love triangle, a coming-of-age story, and other YA-friendly elements in the mix, they serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle readers into a hopeless world where love...
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To fondle or cuddle.
  4. (slang) To thrash or be thrashed by a bear's claws, or to swipe at or be swiped at by a person's arms in a bearlike manner.
    • England finally found some urgency in the closing stages, when O'Reilly held his head in his hands after hitting the woodwork, with Guehi similarly disappointed to see his header smuggled off the line.2026 June 23, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Ghana”, in BBC

smuggle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

smuggle in Hindi

to import or export, illicitly or by stealth, without paying lawful customs charges or duties
तस्करी करना taskarī karnā, तस्करी taskarī

smuggle in Tamil

கள்ளக்கடத்தல்

smuggle in Urdu

لپٹنا, پیار کرنا

smuggle in Bengali

চোরাচালান করা
More languagesFewer languages
smuggle in Malayalam
കടത്തുക kaṭattuka
smuggle in Kannada
ಕಳ್ಳಸಾಗಣೆ ಮಾಡು, ಅಕ್ರಮಸಾಗಣೆ ಮಾಡು, ನ್ಯಾಯಬಾಹಿರವಾಗಿ ಸಾಗಿಸು, ಕಳ್ಳತನದಿಂದ ಸಾಗಿಸು
smuggle in Arabic
هَرَّبَ harraba
smuggle in Vietnamese
buôn lậu

Examples of smuggle in a sentence

  • He smuggled a knife into prison with a view to using it as a weapon.
  • The police arrested the ringleaders of the smuggling operation.
  • People who smuggle artifacts, blood diamonds and ivory trinkets on the black market are unforgivable in my mind.

All 35 example sentences with smuggle

Synonyms of smuggle

Forms of smuggle

third-person singular presentsmuggles
present participlesmuggling
past participlesmuggled
pastsmuggled
alternative form (dialectal)smuckle

Past tense of smuggle: smuggled

Origin of smuggle

From earlier smuckle, either from Dutch smokkelen (“to smuggle”), a frequentative form of Middle Dutch smūken (“to act secretly, be sneaky”), from Old Dutch *smugan, or from Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German smuggeln; all are from Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to creep; slip through or into”). cognates and related terms Cognate with Saterland Frisian smuggelje (“to smuggle”), West Frisian smokkelje (“to smuggle”), German Low German smuggeln, smuckeln (“to move insidiously, smuggle”), German schmuggeln (“to smuggle”), Danish smugle (“to smuggle”), Swedish smuggla (“to smuggle”). Related also to Icelandic smjúga (“to creep, penetrate”), Swedish smyga (“to sneak, slip, crawl, lurk, steal”), German schmiegen (“to nestle, wrap, snuggle”), Old English smēogan, smūgan (“to creep, crawl, move gradually, penetrate”).

Words formed from smuggle

Words that rhyme with smuggle

Questions about smuggle

What does smuggle mean?
Smuggle means to import or export, illicitly or by stealth, without paying lawful customs charges or duties.
What is smuggle in Hindi?
Smuggle in Hindi is तस्करी करना (taskarī karnā), तस्करी (taskarī). See Smuggle meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is smuggle?
Smuggle is a verb.
How do you pronounce smuggle?
Smuggle is pronounced /ˈsmʌɡəl/.
What is the past tense of smuggle?
The past tense of smuggle is smuggled.

Words near smuggle in the dictionary

  1. smuggings
  2. smuggish
  3. smuggishly
  4. smuggishness
  5. smugglable
  6. smuggle
  7. smuggle past
  8. smuggleable
  9. smuggled
  10. smuggled past
  11. smuggler

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smuggle (page history and authors); smuggle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smuggle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smuggle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കടത്തുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); smuggle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-smuggle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “smuggle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smuggle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.