noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Engaging in economic production or distribution in an illegal way.; The activity of making, transporting and/or selling illegal alcoholic liquor. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the act of making or transporting alcoholic liquor for sale illegally wordnet
3. 3
   Engaging in economic production or distribution in an illegal way.; The activity of making, transporting and/or selling an illegal version or copy of a copyrighted product. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   the act of selling illegally or without permission wordnet
5. 5
   Engaging in economic production or distribution in an illegal way.; The activity of operating a mine illicitly. countable, uncountable

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of bootleg form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

black marketgamblingloan sharkingmafianarcotics trafficorganized crime

Example

More examples

"The number of criminals involved in bootlegging outnumbered the federal agents who tried to enforce the law."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.