# black market

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/black-market
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Trade that is in violation of restrictions, rationing, or price controls.

## Examples

- They bought the stolen watch on the black market.
- During the food shortage, some people turned to the black market to find basic supplies at higher prices.
- The government struggled to regulate the economy while a thriving black market emerged to bypass the strict new trade restrictions.

## Origin

The phrase entered English in the early 1930s and spread during the Second World War, most likely as a translation of the German Schwarzmarkt — a 'black market' — alongside Schwärzer, a smuggler: words already used in the 1910s for illicit dealing. The 'black' carries its old association with the secret and the shady — trade done out of sight of the law. Black markets tend to surface wherever a government bans a good or fixes its price. America's Prohibition in the 1920s bred a whole underground trade in smuggled and home-made liquor, and the wartime rationing of meat, sugar, and petrol in the 1940s pushed ordinary people toward sellers working 'off the books' — which is when the term entered everyday speech.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.