moonshiner

[ moon-shahy-ner ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a person who distills or sells liquor, especially corn liquor, illegally.
2. a person who pursues any illegal trade or activity at night.

moonshiner

/ ˈmuːnˌʃaɪnə /

noun

1. a person who illegally makes or smuggles distilled spirits

Word History and Origins

Origin of moonshiner¹

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; moonshine + -er ¹

Example Sentences

With its clean rivers and remote locations, the area also became a haven for moonshiners who set up stills in the heavily forested hills.

From Seattle Times

This one is an action-packed tale centered on a powerful family of moonshiners in 1920s Virginia, and it’s filled with enough dead bodies, doomed romances and sudden betrayals to make you wonder if George R.R.

From New York Times

Her husband, then 21, was a moonshiner who owned the only car in the hollow, an Army Jeep.

From Washington Post

First there’s that of Eliot Ness — a minor police celebrity fresh from defeating Al Capone in Chicago and seasoned from his sojourn battling moonshiners in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee — who arrives in Cleveland in 1934.

From New York Times

Logically, moonshiners enlisted the best drivers to transport alcohol illegally.

From New York Times