traffic
verb/ˈtræfɪk/
/ˈtræfɪk/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they traffic | /ˈtræfɪk/ /ˈtræfɪk/ |
| he / she / it traffics | /ˈtræfɪks/ /ˈtræfɪks/ |
| past simple trafficked | /ˈtræfɪkt/ /ˈtræfɪkt/ |
| past participle trafficked | /ˈtræfɪkt/ /ˈtræfɪkt/ |
| -ing form trafficking | /ˈtræfɪkɪŋ/ /ˈtræfɪkɪŋ/ |
- [transitive, intransitive, usually passive] traffic (in) somebody to move people illegally, especially in order to make them work in bad conditions without proper payment
- The women had been trafficked and forced into sex work.
- Organized criminal gangs are trafficking in migrants.
- Many people were trafficked across the border.
- trafficked children
Definitions on the go
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- [transitive, intransitive] traffic (in) something to buy and sell something illegally
- Smugglers were trafficking arms across the border to the rebels.
- to traffic in drugs
- [intransitive, transitive] traffic (in) something (disapproving) to spread or try to encourage a harmful idea or type of behaviour synonym peddle
- We have no time for people who traffic in bigotry.
- They trafficked all kinds of baseless conspiracy theories.
Word Originearly 16th cent. (denoting commercial transportation of merchandise or passengers): from French traffique, Spanish tráfico, or Italian traffico, of unknown origin. Sense 1 dates from the early 19th cent.
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traffic