How to Use illicit in a Sentence

illicit

adjective

• She had an illicit affair with her boss.
• He was arrested for selling illicit copies of the software.
• The illicit proceeds were used to buy more planes.
  — Shirsho Dasgupta, Miami Herald, 27 May 2026
• When taxes go up, so does illicit trade.
  — Bautista Vivanco, Boston Herald, 4 Apr. 2026
• Which is how Brooks became the go-to guy for illicit bulbs.
  — Clio Chang, Curbed, 11 Sep. 2025
• The bill, however, may not put much of a dent in the illicit trade.
  — Jesse Leavenworth, courant.com, 28 Mar. 2022
• And the effect on illicit flows is, at best, meager.
  — Angélica Durán-Martínez, The Conversation, 24 Feb. 2026
• But illicit drugs are less studied.
  — Regina G. Barber, NPR, 12 May 2026
• Huge numbers of illicit access cards were knocked out.
  — ArsTechnica, 22 May 2026
• But the region has been plagued by illicit mining.
  — John Towfighi, CNN Money, 11 Jan. 2026
• But this breakdown didn’t end the illicit cocaine trade.
  — Abigail R. Hall, Oc Register, 30 Mar. 2026
• And, the survey shows, less than 1% use illicit drugs such as heroin and meth.
  — Terry Demio, The Enquirer, 7 Apr. 2022
• The law forces companies to add ways for users to flag illicit content.
  — New York Times, 22 Apr. 2022
• And nicotine use in young adults still can lead to other illicit substance use.
  — Anchorage Daily News, 22 July 2022
• The anger of some herders doesn’t stop at the illicit poisoning of snow leopards.
  — Ben Ayers, Outside Online, 27 July 2022
• The state does offer two black plates, but a third, illicit version has been spotted on the roads.
  — Bay Area News Group, Mercury News, 9 July 2026
• But in fact, almost no one at the time felt there was anything illicit about the way the money was made.
  — Andrew Delbanco, The New York Review of Books, 8 June 2022
• Climate change and the illicit wildlife trade only make the problem worse.
  — David Axe, Rolling Stone, 23 May 2022
• What effect these changes will have on Tigray’s illicit gold trade remains to be seen.
  — Claire Wilmot & Gisa Tunbridge, The Dial, 12 June 2026
• Further, a loss of access could drive some to seek illicit sources of the drugs, which could turn deadly.
  — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 14 June 2024
• So far however, the stream of illicit substances has not ceased.
  — Hira Humayun and Caitlin Hu, CNN, 20 Sep. 2022
• In fact, the illicit couple seemed to enjoy flaunting their fling.
  — Natasha O'Neill, Vanity Fair, 3 Feb. 2026
• Many of the inmates are addicted to illicit drugs.
  — Raquel Rutledge, ProPublica, 8 May 2026
• But Thai gun experts say most illicit firearms are used for crimes other than homicide.
  — Time, 6 Oct. 2022
• Picture a flask of vodka passed across a corpse, a pool of blood lit up by neon signs, an illicit kiss soundtracked by screams.
  — Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024
• Many captains now carry illicit firecrackers on board to throw at the whales.
  — Tomas Weber, Rolling Stone, 18 May 2024
• Many captains now carry illicit firecrackers on board to throw at the whales.
  — Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 29 May 2024
• If taxes are too high, illicit markets may persist.
  — Dario Sabaghi, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026
• And that’s what happened in Switzerland—the illicit drug market by and large dried up.
  — The Politics Of Everything, The New Republic, 29 Sep. 2021
• Huge amounts of illicit materials, yards and yards of this wretched stuff.
  — Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2023