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Glite Dictionary
moon curser

moon curser

9.9
A person who secretly brings goods into or out of a country to avoid paying taxes
  • noun
  • NSFW
translation icon : contrabandista
  • The moon curser made his way across the border under cover of darkness.

Examples

  • The police arrested a moon curser last night.

  • In old tales, a moon curser was feared more by customs agents than pirates.

  • They said the coast was haunted by a notorious moon curser known for his clever tricks.

  • Many moon cursers operate along the coast.

  • In old tales, a moon curser was feared more by customs agents than pirates.

  • The moon curser made his way across the border under cover of darkness.

  • They said the coast was haunted by a notorious moon curser known for his clever tricks.

Synonyms

smuggler
vsmoon curser
  • NSFW
89 3.8

A person who secretly moves goods across borders to avoid paying tax

is the same idea expressed by another common name
trafficker
vsmoon curser
  • NSFW
62 8.0

A person who illegally buys and sells goods or people

focuses specifically on avoiding import or export duties
runner
vsmoon curser
53 8.3

A person who brings goods into a country without paying customs

is a role name used for such duty avoiding transport
black marketeer
vsmoon curser
  • NSFW
1 7.5

A person who secretly sells scarce or controlled goods for money

covers illegal import or export without stressing profit or scarcity
contrabandist
vsmoon curser
  • NSFW
9.9

A person who moves goods across a border illegally, often to avoid taxes

is the general legal term for that duty avoiding practice

Surface Forms

moon curser singular
moon cursers plural

Morphology

moon + curser

The components 'moon' (the night-time satellite) and 'curser' (an uncommon/obscure form not meaning 'smuggler') give no clear semantic route to 'smuggler'; even if a learner knew 'moon' and 'curse/curser' they would not predict 'smuggler'. This appears to be an idiomatic or historical label with no transparent, cross-linguistic compositional logic, so a B1 learner would not derive the meaning from the parts.

Etymology

Moon curser may come from a story about smugglers who worked at night by the light of the moon and who would 'curse' when clouds hid the light, making them known as curser. That's why moon curser came to mean 'a smuggler'.