Also 6 contrabanda, 6–9 counterband, 7–8 contreband. [ad. Sp. contrabanda smuggling, a. It. contrabando (now contrabb-) ‘unlawful dealing against law or proclamation’ (Florio), f. contra against + bando proclamation, statute:—late L. bandum, bannum: see BANDON, BAN. The F. contrebande (from Sp. or It.) gave the 16–17th-c. Eng. forms counter-, contre-; but the actual form in contra- appears to have come directly from the contraband traffic with the Spanish possessions c. 1600.]
A. Sb.
1. Illegal or prohibited traffic; smuggling.
a. 1529. Skelton, Image Hypocr., Wks. III. 368. For her within his lande Shoulde be no counterbande.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 224. They that goe for Ormus carrie no Pepper but by Contrabanda.
1774. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. 1842, I. 157. This folly has thrown open folding-doors to contraband.
1789. Ld. Auckland, Corr. (1861), II. 195. To prevent my carrying away piastres, which is a great article of contraband.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 54. The whole trade in books was a sort of contraband.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., VI. 65. There was little smuggling or contraband among them.
2. Anything prohibited to be imported or exported; goods imported or exported contrary to law or proclamation; smuggled goods. (Also humorously for anything stolen.)
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 223. All the Spices and drugs that are brought to Mecca, are stollen from thence as Contrabanda.
1713. Ockley, Acc. Barbary, 121. They deal in Gold, Silver and Brimstone, and all manner of Contrabands, viz. Brass, Iron, Marble.
a. 1845. Hood, To Grimaldi, x. Thy partridge body, always stuff’d With waifs, and strays, and contrabands!
3. (In full Contraband of war.) Anything (esp. arms, stores, or other things available for hostile purposes) forbidden to be supplied by neutrals to belligerents in time of war, and liable by the law of nations to be captured and confiscated.
1753. Scots Mag., March, 121/1. They are carrying contraband to the enemy.
1804. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., II. 306. Contraband of war will always be seized by the powerful … during a blockade.
1826. Kent, Comm. (1873), I. vii. 136. It is natural that they should desire to diminish the list of contraband as much as possible.
1861. Bright, Sp. America, 4 Dec. As to Messrs. Slidell and Mason being or not being contraband the General answers for it … that they bore that character.
1879. Lubbock, Addr. Pol. & Educ., vii. 129. With the exception of contraband of war.
4. U.S. Used during the American Civil War for: A negro slave, esp. a fugitive or captured slave; from a decision of Gen. Butler in 1861 that such slaves were contraband of war.
1862. W. H. Russell, in Times, 27 March. The first intimation received by the Federal forces … came from a contraband, a negro boy.
1862. Gilmore, in Reminisc. Abolitionist, vi. (1877), 189. You will at once send to my quarters the four contrabands, John, Abel, George and Dick.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, xxiv. 545. That victory was planned in the brain of that contraband.
1890. D. B. Frankenburger, in W. F. Allen’s Ess. & Monogr., 11. The destitution and grotesque humor of contrabands in camp and school.
B. adj. [attrib. use of the sb.]
1. Prohibited by law, proclamation, or treaty, to be imported or exported: as contraband goods, etc. So contraband trade, trader: trade, or a trader, in contraband goods.
1656. Cromwell, Lett., 28 Aug. To prevent the coming of any materials for shipping, or other contraband goods into Cadiz.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 350. To what purpose should he declare by Law such Goods to be contraband?
1753. Scots Mag., March, 112/2. If the neutral ships had carried on any contraband trade.
1769. H. Walpole, Lett. to Montagu, ccxlviii. Plate … is not counterband in its metallic capacity, but totally so in its personal.
1814. Mad. D’Arblay, Wanderer, V. 17. Men … from beyond seas, with counterband merchandize.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xiv. 140. A large sympathy for contraband traders.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 345. Spain tried to diminish the vast contraband traffic.
2. fig. Forbidden, illegitimate, unauthorized.
1686. Burnet, Trav., iii. (1750), 146. A contraband Nobility.
1706. Collier, Refl. Ridic., 190. The ill Consequences these counterband Praises have.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 81. All expressions of positiveness were after some time made contraband.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Geo. II. (1847), III. iv. 96. Zeal in propagating counterband metaphysics.
1820. Southey, Life Wesley, II. 478. Such an experiment might have cost a contraband preacher his life.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Contrabandage, Contrabandery, Contrabandism, system or practice of contraband traffic, smuggling. See also next.
1885. Birmingh. Weekly Post, 14 Feb., 812. A regular system of contrabandage is kept up, to the loss of the Government.
1843. Tait’s Mag., X. 546. The gestes et faits of the heroes of Vraeschoot contrabandery.
1865. Pall Mall G., 19 Aug., 11. Thanks to thee, thou bold, true son of Massachusetts, author of the new dictionary of contrabandism—Major-General Benjamin F. Butler.
