Definitions for customs
cus·toms

Princeton's WordNet(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. customs, customs duty, custom, impostnoun

   money collected under a tariff

GCIDE(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. customsnoun

   the government department administering the collection of import tariffs. Used with as singular verb.

2. customsnoun

   that area within an airport, sea port, or other border station where freight or the baggage of travellers is checked for dutiable materials or contraband; as, it took an hour to get through customs.

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. customsnoun

   The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.

   We had to pay customs of u00A3200 on all the wine we took back from France.

2. customsnoun

   () The government department or agency that is authorised to collect the taxes imposed on imported goods.

   We got pulled over by customs on our way back from France - we only had 200 bottles of wine - it was so unfair.

Freebase(4.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Customs

   Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country. Depending on local legislation and regulations, the import or export of some goods may be restricted or forbidden, and the customs agency enforces these rules. The customs authority may be different from the immigration authority, which monitors persons who leave or enter the country, checking for appropriate documentation, apprehending people wanted by international arrest warrants, and impeding the entry of others deemed dangerous to the country. In most countries customs are attained through government agreements and international laws. A customs duty is a tariff or tax on the importation or exportation of goods. In the Kingdom of England, customs duties were typically part of the customary revenue of the king, and therefore did not need parliamentary consent to be levied, unlike excise duty, land tax, or other forms of taxes. Commercial goods not yet cleared through customs are held in a customs area, often called a bonded store, until processed. All authorised ports are recognised customs area.

Suggested Resources(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. customs

   The customs symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the customs symbol and its characteristic.

Matched Categories

1. • Duty

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'customs' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4032

How to pronounce customs?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say customs in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of customs in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of customs in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of customs in a Sentence

1. Le Maire:

   Thank you to the French customs officers who are enforcing the European Union's sanctions against those close to the Russian government.

2. Farid Haibat:

   The Taliban burnt parts of the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security and the customs office, and according to my information, they reached the central provincial prison as well.

3. John Naleke:

   We have several sons who have gone to the United States for school. Kakenya is the only one that I can think of that has come back to help us, what she tells us, it touches us. ... She brought a school and a light and is trying to change old customs to help girls get a new, better life.

4. Francisco Sandoval:

   The alleged crimes are illicit association, bribery as well as a special instance of fraud related to her links with ... customs fraud.

5. President Barack Obama on Friday:

   This is not something where we can build a wall to prevent. Mosquitoes don't go through customs, congress needs to get me a bill. It needs to get me a bill that has sufficient funds to do the job. They should not be going off on recess before this is done.

Popularity rank by frequency of use