Meanings
smuggler's bible1
plural smugglers' bibles · alternative smuggler's Bible
- slangA book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items.
A ‘smuggler's bible’ is a facsimile of the sacred book which contains nothing but can carry anything.
1989, Tony Tanner, Scenes of Nature, Signs of Men, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 2073 more examples
Inside the Bible's cover is pasted a bookseller's label identifying the article: “A Smuggler's Bible. Used by smugglers on both sides of the Atlantic in the early nineteenth century to conceal small objects of value. Actually a mere box, this ‘Bible’ could be used to contain any assortment of goods the smuggler could get into it. ca. 1820 (?)”
1966, Joseph McElroy, A Smuggler's Bible, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., →ISBN, page 327As the novel proceeds, various kinds of smuggling and allied dishonesties such as counterfeiting and forging are worked into the text, and by the end Brooke's manuscript is placed in a smuggler's bible on shipboard.
1989, Tom LeClair, The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 135I filled him in on Simon and the vacuum press before I explained about my condolence visit the past Friday, and the tabs of Ecstacy in the smuggler's Bible.
2004, Irene Marcuse, Under the Manhattan Bridge, MacMillan, →ISBN, page 148Synonyms: hollow book
smuggler's Bible2
plural smuggler's Bibles
- alternativeAlternative form of smuggler's bible.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items.
Origin
Named after the smuggling practice of hiding contraband inside large hollowed-out books, especially Bibles. See Modern Mechanix for a 1928 example. Apparently it began as a term of art amongst book dealers; see the 1966 citation.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
smuggler's bible. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smuggler's%20bible
“smuggler's bible.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smuggler's%20bible. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smuggler's bible,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smuggler's%20bible.
Source: smuggler's bible on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.