Also 7 smuckle, 8 smugle. [App. of LG. or Du. origin. The earlier form smuckle corresponds to LG. smukkeln (G. dial. schmuckeln, schmucheln) or Du. smokkelen, while the slightly later smuggle agrees with LG. smuggeln (G. schmuggeln, Da. smugle, Norw. smugla, Sw. smuggla). The origin of the term, and the precise relationship of the two types, is not clear. Cf. SMUGGLER, which appears earlier.]
1. trans. To convey (goods) clandestinely into (or out of) a country or district, in order to avoid payment of legal duties, or in contravention of some enactment; to bring in, over, etc., in this way.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., IV. (1691), 84. Two Hundred thousand pounds smuckled by the Merchants.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. To Smuckle. See to Smuggle.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Smuggle Goods, to run them ashore, or bring them in by stealth, without paying the Custom.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 36. In order afterwards to smuggle them back again into this country.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. II. v. Weapons, military stores can be smuggled over (if the English do not seize them).
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 397. The means of preventing its being smuggled or the duty evaded.
b. intr. To practise smuggling.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 308. The Spaniards can and will Smuggle (as our Seamen call Trading by stealth) as well as any Nation that I know.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, II. iii. 39. Ah! we don’t mean to smuggle any more—so that’s no use.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, II. vi. (1852), 251. The temptation to smuggle was diminished.
† 2. To smuggle the coal (see quot.). slang. Obs.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. To smuggle the Coal, to make people believe one has no Money when the Reckoning is to be paid.
3. transf. a. To get possession of by stealth.
1766. Gray, Kingsgate, 3. The pious resolution To smuggle a few years.
c. 1790. in Hone, Every-day Bk. (1827), II. 832. I shall prove the Excise Office to be the greatest smuggle[r] in the nation, for they smuggled the ground from the public.
b. To convey, etc., in a stealthy or clandestine manner. Const. with advs. and preps., as away, in, into, off, out of, through, etc.
1783. W. Gordon, Livy, V. ii. (1823), 400. Among all that number a single Plebeian could not be smuggled in.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., x. She smuggled him out of the garrison through the pantry window.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, XII. xxxi. I have two private bills I want to smuggle through Parliament.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xiii. 177. On our entrance the document was hastily folded up and smuggled away.
c. intr. To make off stealthily.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (Tauchn.), X. 263. These good people are smuggling off. Let them go in peace.
