contraband Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun goods whose importation or exportation or possession is prohibited by law
  2. adjective satellite distributed or sold illicitly
    black-market; bootleg; black; smuggled.
    • the black economy pays no taxes

WordNet

Con"tra*band noun
Etymology
It. contrabando; contra + bando ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See Ban an edict.
Definitions
  1. Illegal or prohobited traffic.
    Persons the most bound in duty to prevent contraband, and the most interested in the seizures. Burke.
  2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden.
  3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered contraband of war. U.S. Wharton.
Con"tra*band adjective
Definitions
  1. Prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as, contraband goods, or trade.
    The contraband will always keep pace, in some measure, with the fair trade. Burke.
Con"tra*band transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To import illegaly, as prohibited goods; to smuggle. Obs. Johnson.
  2. To declare prohibited; to forbid. Obs.
    The law severly contrabands Our taking business of men's hands. Hudibras.

Webster 1913