smuggle
v.v. to move things or people into or out of a place secretly and illegally. You usually do this to avoid paying taxes or to hide something from the police.
v. to import or export goods or people illicitly, typically in violation of customs regulations or legal prohibitions. Transitive in most contexts, requiring a direct object representing the item or person being moved.
They tried to smuggle expensive watches across the border.
Customs officers caught a passenger trying to smuggle rare birds into the country inside a hidden suitcase compartment.
The historical novel details the dangerous routes used to smuggle prohibited literature into the occupied city, highlighting the ingenuity of the underground resistance network.
From earlier smuckle, either from Dutch smokkelen (“to smuggle”), a frequentative form of Middle Dutch smūken (“to act secretly, be sneaky”), from Old Dutch smugan, or from Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German smuggeln; all are from Proto-West Germanic smeugan (“to creep; slip through or into”). cognates and related terms Cognate with Saterland Frisian smuggelje (“to smuggle”), West Frisian smokkelje (“to smuggle”), German Low German smuggeln, smuckeln (“to move insidiously, smuggle”), German schmuggeln (“to smuggle”), Danish smugle (“to smuggle”), Swedish smuggla (“to smuggle”). Related also to Icelandic smjúga (“to creep, penetrate”), Swedish smyga (“to sneak, slip, crawl, lurk, steal”), German schmiegen (“to nestle, wrap, snuggle”), Old English smēogan, smūgan (“to creep, crawl, move gradually, penetrate”).
The verb is transitive and often takes a prepositional phrase starting with 'into', 'out of', or 'across'.
He smuggled with the goods.He smuggled the goods.Smuggle is a transitive verb; it acts directly on the object and does not require a preposition like 'with' before the noun.