How to Use black-market in a Sentence

black-market

1 of 2 verb
  • That hasn't stopped groups from getting access through black-market means, though.
    — Kate Irwin, PCMAG, 1 May 2024
  • Smith will be playing the role of black-market art dealer, Ruskin.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Ben’s baby girl is sick, and black-market meds require money.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2025
  • However, an expansion in black-market dealings led to a need for more space.
    — Joe Rubin, Sacbee.com, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Now, the shutdown has stoked high prices for black-market VPNs.
    — ABC News, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Now, the shutdown has stoked high prices for black-market VPNs.
    — Arkansas Online, 28 Sep. 2025
  • The gap between the official and black-market exchange rates is widening.
    — Carlos Valdez and Isabel Debre, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2024
  • But the black-market surgical procedure turned out not to be so consequential (at least not yet).
    — Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 21 Mar. 2025
  • The moon rocks given to leaders outside the country have been more susceptible to loss, theft, and black-market sales.
    — David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Apr. 2023
  • Petty theft and black-market dealings are on the rise, and tensions simmer in overcrowded shelters.
    — Taylor Luck, Christian Science Monitor, 28 May 2025
  • The core of Milam’s appeal is the charismatic narrative of his rise from black-market hustler to mogul.
    — Ezra Marcus, New York Times, 30 Jan. 2024
  • People with dollar accounts can only withdraw small amounts in Lebanese pounds at an exchange rate far below the black-market rate.
    — Harold Maass, The Week, 23 Mar. 2023
  • But with success, came legal troubles and rumors of black-market operations.
    — Will Yakowicz, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Garland said the Justice Department was also working to crack down on black-market guns.
    — Robert Legare, CBS News, 3 Apr. 2024
  • Despite this, black-market Stingers have had a depressing tendency to surface in conflicts around the world.
    — David Szondy february 08, New Atlas, 8 Feb. 2026
  • The horror film is about a fading celebrity that takes a black-market drug that can temporarily create a younger, better version of herself.
    — Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Apr. 2025
  • In both films, enterprising young men left in the lurch by a national financial crisis must resort to black-market fishing to, well, stay afloat.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 6 July 2023
  • Fruit, candy, and dessert-like flavors already proliferate among black-market e-cigarettes.
    — Sarah Todd, STAT, 6 May 2026
  • And the year prior, authorities busted a black-market caviar ring in California.
    — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Stewart’s character sells black-market steroids, which is only the catalyst for their relationship.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 1 July 2024
  • Rather than fade into the obscurity to which she has been doomed, Elisabeth takes a gamble on a black-market drug called the Substance.
    — Rachel Handler, Vulture, 20 May 2024
  • An ex-marine, Owens finds himself in a gunfight with a black-market firearms dealer named Slade, who smashes Owens’ vidder.
    — Jeff Calder, ajc, 3 Apr. 2023
  • This has only empowered black-market competitors with cheaper products and laxer standards.
    — Bloomberg Opinion, Twin Cities, 31 Dec. 2025
  • What followed was a surreal black-market boom, a flurry of illicit heists, and the accidental canonization of fast-food pop art.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 19 May 2025
  • The price of many goods is now set by the black-market value of the dollar, which rose to around 70 pounds to the dollar last month, compared with about 16 before the crisis.
    — Nada Rashwan, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
  • The show includes high-stakes undercover operations and night chases to secret agents, treasure maps, and vast sums of black-market money changing hands.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Darra Adam Khel, which lies 85 miles west of Islamabad, is infamous for its sprawling black-market weapons bazaar.
    — Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Mar. 2023
  • Government has a responsibility to keep black-market and counterfeit pouches out of consumers’ hands.
    — Max Cunningham, Fortune, 14 Dec. 2025
  • According to court records, Gentek sold more than $42 million of black-market HIV drugs to the Boyds.
    — Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Instead, Washington should pursue a series of bilateral agreements to prevent the spread of black-market ransomware tools.
    — Sue Gordon, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2021

black market

2 of 2 noun
  • They unloaded the stolen goods on the black market.
  • The black market in prescription drugs is thriving.
  • Those who still have some cash often turn to the black market.
    — Washington Post, 30 July 2019
  • Steel was tougher to come by than a kidney on the black market.
    — Laura Lane, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2022
  • Even your call records can be accessed, we’ve been told, on the black market.
    — Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
  • The steep price tag for the beans has resulted in a black market.
    — Jennifer Nalewicki, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Our state was losing out to our neighbors and the black market.
    — John Laidler, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Aug. 2022
  • On the black market, a dollar is worth roughly a third more.
    — Stefano Pozzebon, CNN Money, 11 Nov. 2025
  • Yet even these are largely ones that have been obtained on the black market.
    — Katherine Timpf, National Review, 18 Dec. 2019
  • The rise of the black market has, in many ways, blindsided states.
    — Lavanya Ramanathan, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
  • They are bought abroad, smuggled in and traded on the black market.
    — John Ruwitch, NPR, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Medicine shortages have forced many to buy them on the black market instead.
    — ABC News, 20 Feb. 2026
  • On the black market, one dollar can be sold for as many as 33 pounds.
    — Heba Farouk Mahfouz, Washington Post, 26 Dec. 2022
  • The dead losers, meanwhile, are mined for organs to sell on the black market.
    — Tom Gliatto, People.com, 26 Dec. 2024
  • That hasn’t stopped a thriving black market from taking hold in the state.
    — Michael Goldberg, ABC News, 24 Mar. 2026
  • That hasn't stopped a thriving black market from taking hold in the state.
    — Michael Goldberg Mississippi Today, Arkansas Online, 25 Mar. 2026
  • From there, the products are sold off, sometimes fenced on the black market.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 May 2023
  • As the years passed, many of the rocks went missing or ended up on the black market.
    — Dallas News, 14 July 2019
  • Sometimes, the black market streamers help make her case.
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Quintero believes strict rules could spring up a black market for short-term rentals.
    — Kristie Keleshian, CBS News, 3 Apr. 2026
  • African-like, storefront looks great but there’s a black market section in the back.
    — Michael Harriot, The Root, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Once on foreign soil, the shoes are then sold through the black market to customers around the world.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 14 Mar. 2025
  • To get their cash, though, the crooks are going to need to resell those goods on the black market.
    — Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 2 Dec. 2021
  • So the economic resources used to buy cannabis no longer go to the black market.
    — Tamra Santana, Houston Chronicle, 14 May 2018
  • The vastness of earth's open waters allow such a black market to thrive.
    — David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 4 Feb. 2019
  • Driving pets and people into a black market is wrong.
    — Ed Sayres, Denver Post, 29 Mar. 2026
  • That's causing a greater demand and an increase in the black market.
    — Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 15 May 2026
  • As a result, some of them turned to the black market, leading to far more overdose deaths.
    — Vanila Singh, STAT, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Few think a couple of arrests in the state will put much of a dent in the black market for bourbon.
    — Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post, 20 Sep. 2022
  • Of course, that only fueled the black market, which didn't have to pay the taxes.
    — John Ramos, CBS News, 21 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'black-market.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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