contraband
    adj 1: distributed or sold illicitly; "the black economy pays no
           taxes" [syn: bootleg, black, black-market,
           contraband, smuggled]
    n 1: goods whose importation or exportation or possession is
         prohibited by law

Contraband \Con"tra*band\, n. [It. contrabando; contra + bando
   ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See Ban an edict.]
   1. Illegal or prohibited traffic.
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            Persons the most bound in duty to prevent
            contraband, and the most interested in the seizures.
                                                  --Burke.
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   2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of
      which is forbidden.
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   3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was
      brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered
      contraband of war. [U.S.]
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   Contraband of war, that which, according to international
      law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at
      the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved
      belligerent. --Wharton.
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Contraband \Con"tra*band\, a.
   Prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as,
   contraband goods, or trade.
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         The contraband will always keep pace, in some measure,
         with the fair trade.                     --Burke.
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Contraband \Con"tra*band\, v. t.
   1. To import illegally, as prohibited goods; to smuggle.
      [Obs.] --Johnson.
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   2. To declare prohibited; to forbid. [Obs.]
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            The law severly contrabands
            Our taking business of men's hands.   --Hudibras.
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CONTRABAND, mar. law. Its most extensive sense, means all commerce which is 
carried on contrary to the laws of the state. This term is also used to 
designate all kinds of merchandise which are used, or transported, against 
the interdictions published by a ban or solemn cry. 
     2. The term is usually applied to that unlawful commerce which is so 
carried on in time of war. Merlin, Repert. h.t. Commodities particularly 
useful in war are contraband as arms, ammunition, horses, timber for ship 
building, and every kind of naval stores. When articles come into use as 
implements of war, which were before innocent, they may be declared to be 
contraband. The greatest difficulty to decide what is contraband seems to 
have occurred in the instance of provisions, which have not been held to be 
universally contraband, though Vattel admits that they become so on certain 
occasions, when there is an expectation of reducing an enemy by famine. 
     3. In modern times one of the principal criteria adopted by the courts 
for the decision of the question, whether any particular cargo of provisions 
be confiscable as contraband, is to examine whether those provisions be in a 
rude or manufactured state; for all articles, in such examinations, are 
treated with greater indulgence in their natural condition than when wrought 
tip for the convenience of the enemy's immediate use. Iron, unwrought, is 
therefore treated with indulgence, though anchors, and other instruments 
fabricated out of it, are directly contraband. 1 Rob. Rep. 1 89. See Vattel, 
b. 3, c. 7 Chitty's L. of Nat. 120; Marsh. Ins. 78; 2 Bro. Civ., Law, 311; 1 
Kent. Com. 135; 3 Id. 215. 
     4. Contraband of war, is the act by which, in times of war, a neutral 
vessel introduces, or attempts to introduce into the territory of, one of 
the belligerent parties, arms, ammunition, or other effects intended for, or 
which may serve, hostile operations. Merlin, Repert. h.t. 1 Kent, Com. 135; 
Mann. Comm. B. 3, c. 7; 6 Mass. 102; 1 Wheat. 382; 1 Cowen, 56 John. Cas. 
77, 120.