duty-free
adjective or adverb
ˌdü-tē-ˈfrē 
ˌdyü-,
ˈd(y)ü-tē-ˌfrē
1
: without payment of customs duties : free from duties
imported duty-free
duty-free goods
2
: relating to or selling duty-free goods
a duty-free shop
Examples of duty-free in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Ramaphosa said efforts to maintain ties with the US were bearing fruit and pointed to the fact that South Africa was not removed from the AGOA trade program, which gives some African countries duty-free access to the US, when the pact was recently extended by a year.
—
semafor.com, 6 Mar. 2026
New York woman Stacey Medina Guzman, 24, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly smuggling 12 bricks of cocaine in duty-free alcohol boxes on a commercial flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston Logan International Airport.
—Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Preliminary official figures pointed to a rise in travel, entertainment spending and duty-free shopping during the holiday.
—Anniek Bao, CNBC, 4 Mar. 2026
The business for L’Oréal — a bellwether — remained soft in 2025, especially due to the channel in China being temporarily disrupted by the suspension of the duty-free members app Sunrise and a change in domestic airport operators.
—Jennifer Weil, Footwear News, 24 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for duty-free
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semafor.com, 6 Mar. 2026
New York woman Stacey Medina Guzman, 24, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly smuggling 12 bricks of cocaine in duty-free alcohol boxes on a commercial flight from the Dominican Republic to Boston Logan International Airport.
—Rick Sobey, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Preliminary official figures pointed to a rise in travel, entertainment spending and duty-free shopping during the holiday.
—Anniek Bao, CNBC, 4 Mar. 2026
The business for L’Oréal — a bellwether — remained soft in 2025, especially due to the channel in China being temporarily disrupted by the suspension of the duty-free members app Sunrise and a change in domestic airport operators.
—Jennifer Weil, Footwear News, 24 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for duty-free
Cite this Entry
“Duty-free.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/duty-free. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
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