Con"tra*band (?), n. [It. contrabando; contra + bando ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See Ban an edict.]
1.
Illegal or prohobited traffic.
Persons the most bound in duty to prevent contraband, and the most interested in the seizures.
Burke.
2.
Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden.
3.
A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered contraband of war.
[U.S.]
Contraband of war, that which, according to international law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved belligerent.
Wharton.
© Webster 1913.
Con"tra*band, a.
Prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as, contraband goods, or trade.
The contraband will always keep pace, in some measure, with the fair trade.
Burke.
© Webster 1913.
Con"tra*band, v. t.
1.
To import illegaly, as prohibited goods; to smuggle.
[Obs.]
Johnson.
2.
To declare prohibited; to forbid.
[Obs.]
The law severly contrabands
Our taking business of men's hands.
Hudibras.
© Webster 1913.