foodlegger

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noun

An illicit foodseller, especially in a jurisdiction where food is subject to rationing.

First used 1940s and 50sScrabble 16

Meanings

nounfoodlegger (plural foodleggers)

plural foodleggers

  1. An illicit foodseller, especially in a jurisdiction where food is subject to rationing.First known use 1940s and 50s

    Recent price controls on butter are rapidly helping to make this item as popular as meat with "foodleggers," and the ceilings on fresh vegetables are an open invitation to black market operators to enter this field.

    1950, David Hinshaw, Herbert Hoover: American Quaker
    2 more examples

    Foodleggers. One sinister development that aggravated the food situation was the rise in wartime Britain of a new kind of criminal: the food racketeer. Like gangsters who terrorized the U.S. under Prohibition, foodleggers have highjacked trucks ...

    1941, Time

    All branches of the retail industry agreed that the plan, far from being selfish on our part, would [provide] food in normal and equitably established channels, making food available for all types of stores without creating foodleggers and black markets.

    1943, A Study and Investigation of the National Defense Program in Its Relation to Small Business: […]

Origin

Blend of food + bootlegger. Attested since circa 1941.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

foodlegger. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foodlegger

MLA

“foodlegger.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foodlegger. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “foodlegger,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foodlegger.

Source: foodlegger on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.