Smuggling

How to spell smuggling

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce smuggling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does smuggling mean?

1. nounThe act of moving goods secretly and illegally across a border or past inspection.
2. verbCarrying or moving something secretly past someone or across a boundary.

Smuggling in a sentence

• noun

  The customs officers were trained to detect smuggling at the airport.

• verb

  The gang spent years smuggling cigarettes through the port.

• noun

  The documentary examined the history of tobacco smuggling along the coast.

• verb

  She was caught smuggling snacks into the cinema in her bag.

Where does smuggling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the verb smuggle, which English picked up in the late seventeenth century from Low German and Dutch trading speech, most likely from forms such as Low German smuggeln or Dutch smokkelen. The underlying sense was 'to convey goods secretly' or 'to slip something past inspection', and the root is thought to be connected to an older Germanic notion of slinking or moving stealthily. The word spread quickly along the North Sea coasts because the brisk illegal trade in tea, spirits and tobacco gave Dutch and German seafarers and English smugglers a shared vocabulary. The -ing form turns the verb into the name of the activity itself, and the doubled g (mirroring the doubled g in smuggle) is the spot writers most often second-guess. The same stealthy flavour survives in everyday phrases about smuggling treats or contraband past a watchful eye.

How the word is built

• smuggl- (from smuggle: to convey secretly)
• -ing (verbal noun / present participle suffix)