"smuggler's bible" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Named after the smuggling practice of hiding contraband inside large hollowed-out books, especially Bibles. See Modern Mechanix for a 1928 example. Apparently it began as a term of art amongst book dealers; see the 1966 citation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smugglers' bibles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smugglers' bibles"
      },
      "expansion": "smuggler's bible (plural smugglers' bibles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1966, Joseph McElroy, A Smuggler's Bible, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., →ISBN, page 327:",
          "text": "Inside the Bible's cover is pasted a bookseller's label identifying the article: “A Smuggler's Bible. Used by smugglers on both sides of the Atlantic in the early nineteenth century to conceal small objects of value. Actually a mere box, this ‘Bible’ could be used to contain any assortment of goods the smuggler could get into it. ca. 1820 (?)”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Tom LeClair, The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 135:",
          "text": "As the novel proceeds, various kinds of smuggling and allied dishonesties such as counterfeiting and forging are worked into the text, and by the end Brooke's manuscript is placed in a smuggler's bible on shipboard.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Tony Tanner, Scenes of Nature, Signs of Men, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 207:",
          "text": "A ‘smuggler's bible’ is a facsimile of the sacred book which contains nothing but can carry anything.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Irene Marcuse, Under the Manhattan Bridge, MacMillan, →ISBN, page 148:",
          "text": "I filled him in on Simon and the vacuum press before I explained about my condolence visit the past Friday, and the tabs of Ecstacy in the smuggler's Bible.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items."
      ],
      "id": "en-smuggler's_bible-en-noun-Gn5hY5Fp",
      "links": [
        [
          "book",
          "book"
        ],
        [
          "interior",
          "interior"
        ],
        [
          "removed",
          "removed"
        ],
        [
          "purpose",
          "purpose"
        ],
        [
          "storing",
          "storing"
        ],
        [
          "item",
          "item"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hollow book"
        },
        {
          "word": "smuggler's Bible"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "smuggler's bible"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Named after the smuggling practice of hiding contraband inside large hollowed-out books, especially Bibles. See Modern Mechanix for a 1928 example. Apparently it began as a term of art amongst book dealers; see the 1966 citation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smugglers' bibles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smugglers' bibles"
      },
      "expansion": "smuggler's bible (plural smugglers' bibles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1966, Joseph McElroy, A Smuggler's Bible, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., →ISBN, page 327:",
          "text": "Inside the Bible's cover is pasted a bookseller's label identifying the article: “A Smuggler's Bible. Used by smugglers on both sides of the Atlantic in the early nineteenth century to conceal small objects of value. Actually a mere box, this ‘Bible’ could be used to contain any assortment of goods the smuggler could get into it. ca. 1820 (?)”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Tom LeClair, The Art of Excess: Mastery in Contemporary American Fiction, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 135:",
          "text": "As the novel proceeds, various kinds of smuggling and allied dishonesties such as counterfeiting and forging are worked into the text, and by the end Brooke's manuscript is placed in a smuggler's bible on shipboard.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Tony Tanner, Scenes of Nature, Signs of Men, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 207:",
          "text": "A ‘smuggler's bible’ is a facsimile of the sacred book which contains nothing but can carry anything.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Irene Marcuse, Under the Manhattan Bridge, MacMillan, →ISBN, page 148:",
          "text": "I filled him in on Simon and the vacuum press before I explained about my condolence visit the past Friday, and the tabs of Ecstacy in the smuggler's Bible.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "book",
          "book"
        ],
        [
          "interior",
          "interior"
        ],
        [
          "removed",
          "removed"
        ],
        [
          "purpose",
          "purpose"
        ],
        [
          "storing",
          "storing"
        ],
        [
          "item",
          "item"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A book that has had some of its interior removed for the purpose of storing small items."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hollow book"
    },
    {
      "word": "smuggler's Bible"
    }
  ],
  "word": "smuggler's bible"
}