black-market
6
4.8
- adjective
- /ˈblækˌmɑrkɪt/
:
mercado negro
- Unfortunately, quality control on black-market drugs is poor.
- black-market dealer
- black-market sale
- black-market trade
Examples
-
Miami is the gateway to the booming black-market trade.
Fiction book (2002) -
The government is cracking down on black-market sales of stolen electronics.
-
Would you look for a black-market operation in a place like this?
-
This looks like black-market clothing.
-
He's been a black-market dealer ever since.
-
These are trained mercenaries as well as being black-market antiquities dealers.
-
Reggie bought a black-market encryption device from an agent provocateur.
Fiction book (2000) -
The difference between the black-market price and the official exchange—millions of cruzeiros—vanished.
Academic text (1997) -
Look at the dough he could be makin' sellin' black-market tires and gasoline... if he weren't in the service.
-
Uncle Jack was fat—a rumpled, rolling man who smoked several black-market cigars every day.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
3
7.7
Items people sell or bring into a country illegally
1
7.2
Sold illegally without official permission
Illegally brought into a country to avoid taxes or rules
How Illegal
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Black-market combines black 'dark' or 'hidden' and market 'place to buy and sell'. Imagine a market that works in the dark, away from the law, so black-market means 'illegal trade'.