black market

plural black markets · alternative attributive black-market

1. idiomaticTrade that is in violation of restrictions, rationing, or price controls.

   Peace and order will not be tolerated. Start saving your cash for the black market, folks, you're gonna need it.

   2004, George Carlin, “THE FANATICS WILL WIN”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, page 135

   2 more examples

   In District 12, a dirt-poor coal-mining community that looks like a Dorothea Lange photograph, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) quietly rebels against the system by hunting game in a forbidden area with her friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and trading it on the black market.

   2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club

   Increasing numbers of people are turning to a growing black market for food to supplement their diets as prices rocket, experts have said.

   2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. collectiveThe people who engage in such trade, or that sector of the economy.

   associational black market

present singular third person black markets · participle present black marketing · participle past black marketed · past black marketed · alternative attributive black-market

1. transitiveTo sell (goods) on the black market.

   ‘He sits on his backside ashore, making a fortune by black marketing the fish these men catch.’

   1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 214

2. intransitiveTo take part in black-market trading.