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ILLEGAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules
Example:
an illegal chess move
Classified under:
Similar:
unratified (lacking legal authority)
under-the-counter (done or sold illicitly and secretly)
penal; punishable ((of an act or offense) subject to punishment by law)
misbranded; mislabeled (branded or labeled falsely and in violation of statutory requirements)
ineligible (prohibited by official rules)
illegitimate; illicit; outlaw; outlawed; unlawful (contrary to or forbidden by law)
hot (recently stolen or smuggled)
extralegal; nonlegal (not regulated or sanctioned by law)
extrajudicial (beyond the usual course of legal proceedings; legally unwarranted)
embezzled; misappropriated (taken for your own use in violation of a trust)
dirty; ill-gotten (obtained illegally or by improper means)
criminal; felonious (involving or being or having the nature of a crime)
black; black-market; bootleg; contraband; smuggled (distributed or sold illicitly)
banned; prohibited (forbidden by law)
amerciable (of a crime or misdemeanor; punishable by a fine set by a judge)
Also:
illegitimate (of marriages and offspring; not recognized as lawful)
irregular (contrary to rule or accepted order or general practice)
unlawful (contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law)
Attribute:
legality (lawfulness by virtue of conformity to a legal statute)
Antonym:
legal (established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules)
Derivation:
illegality (unlawfulness by virtue of violating some legal statute)
Context examples:
By using a genetic tool called DNA barcoding, Brazilian researchers could help prevent illegal fishing of threatened shark species and hence help prevent the collapse of some fisheries.
(New way to save endangered sharks – and our seafood, SciDev.Net)
Causes of cheetah decline have been mostly habitat loss, killings of cheetahs by humans, human hunting of cheetah's resources such as antelope, illegal fur trade, illegal cub trafficking, and roadkill.
(Around 7,100 cheetahs remain, say experts, Wikinews)
The device software attempted to access an illegal or corrupted memory location.
(Device Runtime Memory Access Error Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)
Other controlled substances, such as heroin and LSD, have no known medical use and are illegal in the United States.
(Controlled substance, NCI Dictionary)
An illegal drug composed of the smokable, baseform of cocaine that is produced by dissolving cocaine hydrochloride in an alkali solution, usually sodium bicarbonate and water, and subsequent boiling.
(Crack Cocaine, NCI Thesaurus)
I am ignorant of all concerning Mr. Rochester: the letter never mentions him but to narrate the fraudulent and illegal attempt I have adverted to.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Tackling the illegal occupation problem is among the most urgent demands to be addressed in order to bring all units under the federal government.
(Brazilian savanna unprotected, study finds, Agência Brasil)
It means operating a motor vehicle while you are affected by: • Alcohol • Legal or illegal drugs • Sleepiness • Distractions, such as using a cell phone or texting • Having a medical condition which affects your driving
(Impaired Driving, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
Illegal termination of pregnancy.
(Illegal Abortion, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
Some of the more observant of the crowd had glanced suspiciously at this advancing figure, but the majority had not observed him at all until he reined up his horse upon a knoll which overlooked the amphitheatre, and in a stentorian voice announced that he represented the Custos rotulorum of His Majesty’s county of Sussex, that he proclaimed this assembly to be gathered together for an illegal purpose, and that he was commissioned to disperse it by force, if necessary.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
