Definition of bootleggernext
as in smuggler
a person who imports or exports goods secretly and illegally a bootlegger of counterfeit electronics

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bootlegger And follow along on NASCAR’s journey, from its bootlegger beginnings to its billion-dollar rise to the top of the sports world. Bill Bootz, Charlotte Observer, 23 Dec. 2025 No one knows why; no one has a telephone in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains, so John Boy sets out into a winter storm to find his daddy, having various escapades with the quirky residents of their backwoods community—a Black preacher, a pair of old-lady bootleggers, a turkey thief—along the way. Literary Hub, 22 Dec. 2025 Captured by the legendary late bootlegger Mike Millard and well-known in the grey market, it’s been spruced up by Steven Wilson for inclusion on the set, marking its first-ever official release. Gary Graff, Billboard, 12 Dec. 2025 The concert recording, captured on April 26, 1975 — nearly half a year before the album was released — at the Los Angeles Sports Arena by an ingenious bootlegger, sounds about as good as a stereo tape capturing live quadrophonic sound could. Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 11 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for bootlegger
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bootlegger
smuggler
Noun
  • Hole, Oleg and Martin Aminov (Simon J Berger), a petty gun smuggler mistakenly accused of being the serial killer, wind up in a stationary elevator stuck between two floors with an armed Waaler reaching in to grab Oleg’s hair.
    K.J. Yossman, Variety, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Two smugglers were later sentenced to decades in prison for that incident.
    CBS News, CBS News, 24 Mar. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Bootlegger.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bootlegger. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

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