How to Use moonshiner in a Sentence

moonshiner

noun
  • Quinn is not some moonshiner trying to make a quick buck on the alt-fuel craze.
    — Wired Staff, WIRED, 8 May 2008
  • He previously had been stabbed multiple times, and a moonshiner tried to run him over.
    — Kirsten Fiscus, The Tennessean, 14 Feb. 2024
  • When both jail cells are full with moonshiners, the only place for Otis to be confined was at Andy’s house.
    — Southern Living, 1 May 2017
  • It was unveiled in March at a party where a gourmet moonshiner, an early client, served thimble-size drinks.
    — Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2016
  • The brand was named after her great-grandfather who was a successful moonshiner.
    — Caché McClay, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
  • While Loretta was the daughter of a coal miner, my mother was the daughter of a moonshiner.
    — Nancy Russell, Variety, 6 Oct. 2022
  • The singer named the liquor for her great-grandfather, Davis Hogue, who was a farmer and moonshiner in the South.
    — Charlotte Phillipp, People.com, 29 Sep. 2024
  • The spirit brand is named after her late great-grandfather David Hogue, who was a farmer and moonshiner.
    — Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 9 Sep. 2024
  • As a young man, Johnson built a reputation as a moonshiner who could outrun the law on the mountain roads like no one else.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 21 Dec. 2019
  • Her husband, then 21, was a moonshiner who owned the only car in the hollow, an Army Jeep.
    — Terence McArdle, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2022
  • The drink is named after her great-grandfather, Davis Hogue, who was a farmer and moonshiner in the South.
    — Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 7 Sep. 2024
  • The story of a cabin set on fire by a hostile tribe on Tom Sawyer Island has also been changed to blame a moonshiner.
    — Roger Catlin, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2023
  • Boise police worked with federal, state and county officers in tracking down and arresting moonshiners and runners.
    — Arthur Hart, idahostatesman, 24 June 2017
  • Her moral struggle, as well as the mysterious origins of the moonshiners, provide much of the drama for this film, which combines elements of mystery in its genre thrills.
    — cleveland.com, 13 Dec. 2017
  • During Prohibition, moonshiners lit its clear-burning wood to avoid detection from revenuers.
    — Robert Langellier, National Geographic, 24 June 2019
  • Rather than figuring out elaborate ways of sneaking alcohol past federal dragnets, the moonshiners took a direct approach.
    — Twin Cities, 13 May 2017
  • After a 14-year-old girl’s older brother seemingly dies in an apparent drowning, a group of moonshiners offer to bring him back, but only if the girl kills someone else.
    — cleveland.com, 13 Dec. 2017
  • The artifacts were seized through civil forfeiture, a sometimes controversial practice that dates back to the age of privateers and that has since been used to go after moonshiners, mafia dons and drug kingpins.
    — Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 21 Oct. 2025
  • The marshal had been transporting prisoners through Knott County, Kentucky, when he was ambushed by a posse that was looking to free the moonshiners, Turk said.
    — Washington Post, 28 July 2019
  • One of her granddaddies was a Pentecostal preacher, the other a moonshiner, and neither seemed incompatible with Klan teachings.
    — Washington Post, 5 June 2018
  • Like old-time revenue officers heading into the backwoods to arrest moonshiners, Angel and his colleagues faced angry miners used to operating with impunity.
    — Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2020
  • The roles available in RDO include bounty hunter, naturalist, trader, collector, and moonshiner.
    — Paige Lyman, Wired, 7 Sep. 2021
  • In the late 1800s, it’s also been said that the cave was a hideout for moonshiners, thanks to its secluded location and constant temperature of 64 degrees every day of the year.
    — Megan Dubois, Southern Living, 23 Oct. 2025
  • This portrait began to appear in post-Civil War publications, eventually becoming the iconic image of a moonshiner.
    — Alan Ashe, CNN, 7 June 2018
  • The liqour was named after her great-grandfather Davis Hogue, who was a successful moonshiner in the American South during Prohibition.
    — Caché McClay, USA Today, 12 Nov. 2025
  • If Yankee bootleggers stood for organized crime, the hillbilly moonshiner is the picture of down-home entrepreneurial individualism.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • The president also offered full pardons to a Pittsburgh dentist convicted of false billing, an Oklahoma moonshiner, and a Florida marijuana smuggler.
    — Justin Sink, Bloomberg.com, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Daniel, born in Akron with several generations of mechanics in his family (and a possible Tennessee moonshiner), originally wanted to be an architect.
    — cleveland, 6 Aug. 2021
  • Pusser launched a war against moonshiners, gamblers and others who brought organized crime to the county, said Steve Sweat, a lifelong county resident and the state’s honorary Buford Pusser historian.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Last week a federal judge in Texas ruled that the 156-year-old federal ban on making booze at home is unconstitutional—moonshiners rejoice, because firing up that still in your backyard shed might actually be legal in the near future.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 15 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'moonshiner.' 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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