bootlegger

noun

boot·​leg·​ger ˈbüt-ˌle-gər How to pronounce bootlegger (audio)
-ˌlā-
plural bootleggers
: one who bootlegs something: such as
a
: a person who makes or sells alcoholic liquor illegally
… in sleepy little St-Hilaire, once a Prohibition boom town, from which bootleggers smuggled truckloads of whisky into the U.S. …Will Ferguson
Most of us associate the pocket flask with the Roaring Twenties era of the bootlegger and the speakeasy …Linda Rosenkrantz
b
: a person who produces, reproduces, or distributes something (such as a recording) illicitly or without authorization
As part of his job, Schoenfeld is charged with ferreting out record bootleggers and protecting the copyright interests of record labels.Holly Gleason
… the conversation ran from how the different companies project returns on direct mail to efforts to crack down on software bootleggers.Leslie Brokaw

Examples of bootlegger in a Sentence

a bootlegger of counterfeit electronics
Recent Examples on the Web
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.
In this modern fairy tale, McCullers creates the perfect love triangle: Miss Amelia the bootlegger, her ex-convict ex-husband, and the trickster Cousin Lymon. The Week Us, theweek, 5 Nov. 2024 Spikes in methanol poisonings are common in Iran, where ordinary alcohol can’t be sold or consumed and bootleggers often use industrial methanol to produce homemade alcoholic drinks instead. Bykai Kupferschmidt, science.org, 31 Oct. 2024 The dynamic echoed commercial theater’s current love affair with missing-the-point adaptations of The Great Gatsby, a Faust story of its own with a bootlegger as the Devil. Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 1 Aug. 2024 Among the additions to season two is Simu Liu as the voice of Chang, a charming bootlegger from a powerful family who can been seen above in the first-look clip that is exclusive to THR. Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for bootlegger 

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bootlegger was in 1886

Dictionary Entries Near bootlegger

Cite this Entry

“Bootlegger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bootlegger. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

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