illegal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules

   an illegal chess move

2. 2
   adj

   Contrary to, forbidden, or not authorized by law, especially criminal law.

   This is illegal, you know!

3. 3
   adj

   Forbidden by established rules.

   Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.

4. 4
   adj

   Being or doing something illegally.

   illegal immigrant

5. 5
   noun

   An illegal act or technique.

   That whatſoever illegals hath been uſed againſt his friends and ſubjects, by impriſoning them without law, or impoſing fines upon their eſtates, be diſclaimed, and that perſons ſo committed be forthwith diſcharged.

6. 6
   noun

   Contraband, esp. illegal substances such as drugs.

   …I've got illegals in my bottom…!

7. 7
   noun

   An illegal immigrant.

   In Manchester and in Aldershot in Hampshire, asylum seeker accommodation was targeted by demonstrators carrying placards that read “deport them, don’t support them” and “no apartments for illegals”.

8. 8
   noun

   A spy operating abroad illegally and under non-official cover, without visible ties to his or her country’s authorities.

   Anna Chapman, whose glamorous appearance won her more publicity in the Western media than all the other illegals combined, was so successfully deceived by a US sting operation that she handed over her SVR laptop to an FBI agent posing as a Russian.

Etymology

Borrowed from French illégal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin legalis, by surface analysis, il- + legal. In senses relating to immigration, via clipping of illegal alien or illegal immigrant.