illicit

Pluralillicits

1. 1
   adjective

   Forbidden by law, or done in violation of it.

   Officers uncovered an illicit gambling operation in the back of the restaurant.

   The trade in illicit weapons keeps the conflict going long after the ceasefire.

   Similarillegal, unlawful, illegitimate, criminal

   Oppositelegal, lawful, legitimate

2. 2
   adjective

   Going against accepted social norms.

   Their illicit affair had been the talk of the office for months.

   She took an illicit pleasure in reading her sister's diary.

   Similarforbidden, clandestine, improper

3. 3
   adjective

   In law, not sanctioned by law, though not legally invalid.

   Although the contract was illicit, the judge ruled that it remained binding on both parties.

   The wedding was illicit because the bishop had not given permission, yet it was still a valid marriage.

   Note

   Lawyers keep the word to its Latin core, licitus, "allowed", with a "not" in front: an illicit act breaks a rule, while an invalid one has no legal effect at all. So a bigamous or unsanctioned marriage can be illicit and still be a marriage. Outside legal writing the line is rarely drawn, and the word slides into the plain "unlawful" meaning.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A banned or unlawful item, such as an illegal drug.

   Respondents were asked whether they had used alcohol, tobacco, or any illicits in the past month.

   Cannabis was the only illicit the patient admitted to using.

   Note

   The noun is shorthand for illicit drugs, at home in research on drug use, where it usually appears in the plural: cannabis use before "the other illicits". It reads as clipped jargon in general prose. Outside a study or a survey, illegal drugs or banned substances says the same thing without sounding like a questionnaire.

Showing meanings only. Show all 4