单词 | mountebank |
释义 | mountebank (once / 5493 pages) n A mountebank has a talent for tricking people into buying things, like the mountebank who charms women into buying "magic beauty pills" for hundreds of dollars, though they are just ordinary vitamins you can buy anywhere. Mountebank, pronounced "MOUN-tih-bank," has an interesting origin, in the Italian phrase "monta in banco." It describes a "doctor" who would "mount a bench" in the marketplace. Standing a bit higher than the crowd enabled people to hear his sales pitch and see the potions and powders he claimed were medical cures that never failed — claims as bogus as his credentials. A mountebank is a fast-talking crook pretending to be an expert. WORD FAMILYmountebank: mountebanks USAGE EXAMPLESBut whether any of the other 16 mountebanks could have appealed outside of the GOP base is an enormous question mark. Salon(Aug 12, 2016) One is a rank political novice, a buffoon, a mountebank, and a demagogue. New York Times(Jun 27, 2016) “Some dreadful mountebank in a long-tailed coat will open . . . with a windy speech; then another mountebank will repeat the same rubbish in other words.” The New Yorker(Jun 27, 2016) n a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes Syn|Hypo|Hyper charlatan craniologist, phrenologist someone who claims to be able to read your character from the shape of your skull quackan untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice beguiler, cheat, cheater, deceiver, slicker, trickster someone who leads you to believe something that is not true |
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