noun illegal or prohibited traffic.
2. contraband ·vt to declare prohibited; to forbid.
3. contraband ·noun goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden.
4. contraband ·vt to import illegally, as prohibited goods; to smuggle.
5. contraband ·adj prohibited or excluded by law or treaty; forbidden; as, contraband goods, or trade.
6. contraband ·noun a negro slave, during the civil war, escaped to, or was brought within, the union lines. such slave was considered contraband of war.