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to traffic

to traffic

7 8.1
To buy or sell illegal goods
  • verb
  • /ˈtræfɪk/
  • NSFW
translation icon : traficar con
  • And if they're trafficking your family member around, that's a real big red flag.

They were just blatantly trafficking cross country.

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Examples

  • He traffics in black market technology.

  • It's not just men who traffic women, but also women who traffic women.

    Blog text (8)
  • I had no idea she was allegedly trying to traffic in credit card information on the rich and famous.

    Blog text (1)
  • Utopian dreams are attractive, in any age, to those who traffic in ideas.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Implicit in much of the criticism of for-profit schools is the belief that a university should traffic in ideas rather than know-how.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The alt right also traffics in precarious masculinity.

  • This uncomfortable accusation... ...has plunged me into at least 15 minutes of serious reflection... ...from which I have emerged with the conclusion... ...that, yes, I traffic in female stereotypes.

  • We shall know that to feed oneself is to traffic with other bodies, that desire is the itch and we will only find relief to have it flare up again, that to love is to devour.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • What's changed, however, is that Mary's newfound popularity threatens to transform her into little more than a commodity, rendered safe and conciliatory by those who traffic in colonial nostalgia.

    Academic text (2015)
  • The police arrested several individuals who were found to traffic in counterfeit goods.

Synonyms

to run
vsto traffic
  • NSFW
839 8.6

To secretly move illegal goods from one place to another

is broader, covering illegal buying or selling beyond transport
to deal
vsto traffic
  • NSFW
324 3.0

To buy and sell goods, sometimes illegally

focuses only on illegal buying or selling not general commerce
to fence
vsto traffic
  • NSFW
11 9.1

To buy stolen goods and sell them to other people

covers illegal trade in goods generally rather than only stolen items

Antonyms

Follow rules or laws that apply to you

Idioms

Tell someone angrily to do something dangerous to stop them complaining

Phrasal Verbs

To guide cars and people so they move safely through an intersection

Avoid heavy traffic by taking a different route

Compounds

75 3.0

Planes moving in the sky in one area at one time

35 1.0

Many cars are stuck and move very slowly on a road

28 1.0

A device with red, yellow and green lights that controls cars and people at street intersections

Directing vehicles and people so they move safely and smoothly

11 2.9

People walking in an area near shops or businesses

A system of colored lights where roads meet that tells cars and people when to go

6 2.4

A police officer who directs cars and people at busy intersections

4 3.2

A place where a judge decides cases about breaking driving and parking rules

A red, yellow and green sign on a report or screen that shows a project's status

People walking along a street or public area, often many at once

3 2.0

A painted part of a road for one line of moving vehicles

2 4.2

Illegal buying and selling of drugs for profit

2 2.8

A round road junction where cars go around a central island to enter or leave

2 1.0

Many cars moving on the roads at the same time

1 4.4

A time when many cars move very slowly and cause long delays

1 2.5

A large number of trucks moving on a road

A raised area in the middle of a road where people wait and cars cannot go

The movement of cars and trucks on roads

A flow of cars moving on roads and streets

traffic control
  • Specialized
1 4.2

Managing data flow on a network to keep services fast and stable

The movement of cars and trucks on roads in an area at one time

Bicycles moving along a road or path at a given time

Many people and cars travel to and from work at rush hour

Very bad traffic that makes travel slow and hard

A time when cars and other vehicles move slowly and sometimes stop because of heavy traffic or an accident

traffic pattern
  • Specialized
1 4.6

A path planes follow around an airport before landing

brain traffic
  • Informal
8.5

Busy, messy thoughts that make it hard to focus

The movement of buses along a road or route

bus traffic
  • Specialized
4.2

The amount of data sent between parts of a computer over a shared connection

dadburn traffic
  • Archaic
9.9

Very slow, annoying traffic that makes you late

direct traffic
  • Texting
3.8

Visits to a website that come from people typing the address or using a bookmark

9.9

A sudden large number of people visiting a website at once

traffic delay
  • Specialized
3.5

A time when data takes longer to travel across a computer network, causing lag

traffic pattern
  • Specialized
3.9

The usual way data moves through a computer network

8.4

The buying, selling, and moving of people to be forced to work, especially Africans taken to the Americas

How Illicit

to smuggle
  • NSFW
172 3.9
to traffic
  • NSFW
7 8.1
to peddle
46 3.9
to deal
  • NSFW
324 3.0

Surface Forms

traffic infinitive
trafficked past
trafficked past participle
trafficking present participle
traffics third person singular

Etymology

Traffic as a verb comes from the same old idea of trade, meaning 'to do business', so to traffic in something is to buy and sell it, often secretly or illegally.