bootlegger

[ boot-leg-er ]

noun

1. a person who makes or sells liquor or other goods illegally:

   A bootlegger named George Cassiday secretly supplied members of Congress with liquor during Prohibition.

   The sort of criminals of interest to the piracy commission are large-scale DVD bootleggers, not individual downloaders.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bootlegger¹

bootleg ( def ) + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Like bootleggers and Baptists both benefiting from blue laws, the extreme left and extreme right need each other to justify their catastrophizing.

From Los Angeles Times

“He was born into a family of bootleggers and gamblers and they outsmarted and out-hustled everyone,” Brown biographer James Richardson once wrote.

From Los Angeles Times

Those without access in the past have purchased liquor from bootleggers or brewed their own inside their homes.

From Seattle Times

His father is a minister and a bootlegger.

From Los Angeles Times

He was clear, though, that his favorite story was an award-winner about Junior Johnson and how he evolved from moonshine bootlegger to stock car driver.

From Los Angeles Times