Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Contraband \Con"tra*band\, n. [It. contrabando; contra + bando
   ban, proclamation: cf. F. contrebande. See {Ban} an edict.]
   1. Illegal or prohibited traffic.

            Persons the most bound in duty to prevent
            contraband, and the most interested in the seizures.
                                                  --Burke.

   2. Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of
      which is forbidden.

   3. A negro slave, during the Civil War, escaped to, or was
      brought within, the Union lines. Such slave was considered
      contraband of war. [U.S.]

   {Contraband of war}, that which, according to international
      law, cannot be supplied to a hostile belligerent except at
      the risk of seizure and condemnation by the aggrieved
      belligerent. --Wharton.