Meanings
adjectiveduty-free (not comparable)
- not comparableExempt from duty, especially from customs duty.
CBP told CNN it currently processes “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.”
2025 May 2, Elisabeth Buchwald, Ramishah Maruf, “A massive tariff on millions of Americans’ purchases just went into effect — cue the chaos”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2025
nounduty-free (countable and uncountable, plural duty-frees)
plural duty-frees
- countableuncountableA duty-free article, especially part of the allowance of such goods allowed to be imported.
We brought back so much duty-free we could hardly walk.
- countableuncountableA shop where duty-free goods can be bought.
Have you been to Melbourne airport's duty-free?
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveexempt from duty
Similar
Also see
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Englishduty
- Proto-Indo-European*preyH-
- Proto-Indo-European*priHós
- Proto-Germanic*frijwaz
- Proto-West Germanic*friu
- Old Englishfrēo
- Englishduty-free
Translations
Bulgarian безмитен
- безмитен (bezmiten)exempt from duty, especially customs
Chinese Mandarin 免稅 /免税
- 免稅 /免税 (miǎnshuǐ)exempt from duty, especially customs
Czech bezcelní
- bezcelníexempt from duty, especially customs
Danish toldfri
- toldfriexempt from duty, especially customs
Dutch belastingvrij, taxfree
- belastingvrijexempt from duty, especially customs
- taxfreeexempt from duty, especially customs
- taxfreewinkela shop where duty-free goods can be bought
- taxfreeshopa shop where duty-free goods can be bought
Esperanto senimposta
- senimpostaexempt from duty, especially customs
Finnish tulliton
- tullitonexempt from duty, especially customs
French hors taxe
- hors taxeexempt from duty, especially customs
German zollfrei, abgabenfrei
- zollfreiexempt from duty, especially customs
- abgabenfreiexempt from duty, especially customs
Greek αδασμολόγητος
- αδασμολόγητος (adasmológitos)exempt from duty, especially customs
Hungarian vámmentes
- vámmentesexempt from duty, especially customs
Indonesian bebas cukai, bebas cukai
- bebas cukaiexempt from duty, especially customs
- bebas cukaia shop where duty-free goods can be bought
Japanese 免税, デューティー・フリー
- 免税 (menzei)exempt from duty, especially customs
- デューティー・フリー (dyǔtī hurī)exempt from duty, especially customs
- 無税 (muzei)exempt from duty, especially customs
Korean 면세
- 면세 (myeonse)exempt from duty, especially customs
Norwegian Bokmål tollfri
- tollfriexempt from duty, especially customs
Polish bezcłowy, wolnocłowy
- bezcłowyexempt from duty, especially customs
- wolnocłowyexempt from duty, especially customs
- sklep wolnocłowya shop where duty-free goods can be bought
Portuguese isento de impostos, duty-free
- isento de impostosexempt from duty, especially customs
- duty-freea shop where duty-free goods can be bought
Romanian scutit de vamă, fără vamă
- scutit de vamăexempt from duty, especially customs
- fără vamăexempt from duty, especially customs
- scutit de taxeexempt from duty, especially customs
Russian беспо́шлинный, дьютифри
- беспо́шлинный (bespóšlinnyj)exempt from duty, especially customs
- дьютифри (dʹjutifri)a shop where duty-free goods can be bought
Spanish sin arancel
- sin arancelexempt from duty, especially customs
Swedish tullfri
- tullfriexempt from duty, especially customs
Turkish gümrüksüz
- gümrüksüzexempt from duty, especially customs
Cite this entry
APA
duty-free. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/duty-free
MLA
“duty-free.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/duty-free. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “duty-free,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/duty-free.
Source: duty-free on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.