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  1. humbug love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Something intended to deceive; a hoax or fraud.
  2. n. A person who claims to be other than what he or she is; an impostor.
  3. n. Nonsense; rubbish.
  4. n. Pretense; deception.
  5. interj. Used to express disbelief or disgust.
  6. v. To deceive or trick.
  7. v. To practice deception or trickery.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A trick; an imposition, especially an imposition perpetrated under fair and honorable pretenses; a hoax.
  2. n. A spirit of deception or imposition; falseness; hollowness; pretense; sham: as, there is a great deal of humbug about him.
  3. n. An impostor; a cheat; a deceitful fellow; a person given to cajolery, flattery, or specious stories.
  4. n. A form of nippers for grasping the cartilage of the nose in refractory cattle.
  5. n. A kind of candy. See the extract.
  6. To deceive by a false pretense; impose upon; cajole; hoax.
  7. To practise deceit or trickery.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A hoax, prank or jest
  2. n. A fraud or sham
  3. n. A fraudster or cheat
  4. n. UK A type of chewy sweet (candy)
  5. interj. nonsense!
  6. v. To play a trick on.
  7. v. To cheat, swindle.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax.
  2. n. A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.
  3. n. One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor.
  4. v. To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. pretentious or silly talk or writing
  2. n. something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
  3. n. communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive
  4. v. trick or deceive

Etymologies

  1. First in use about 1735-40, from hum ("(dialectal and slang) to delude, impose on, cajole") + bug ("a specter, goblin") (Wiktionary)
  2. Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (9)

Words with the same meaning

  1. hoax
  1. cajolery
  1. trickishness
  1. impostor
  1. deceive
  1. impose
  1. cajole
  1. deception
  1. deceiver

hypernyms (12)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. hokum
  2. nonsense
  1. nonsensicality
  2. meaninglessness
  1. bunk
  2. deception
  1. misrepresentation
  2. deceit
  1. deceive
  2. cozen
  1. delude
  2. lead on

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. imposture
  2. hypocrite
  3. hypocrisy
  4. impostor
  1. deceit
  2. quackery
  3. nonsense
  4. swindler
  1. liar
  2. snob
  3. cad
  4. fraud
  1. sham
  2. villainy
  3. egotism
  4. artifice
  1. farce
  2. dissimulation
  3. cowardice
  4. prevarication
  1. perfidy
  2. sophistry
  3. insincerity

reverse dictionary (36)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. kid
  2. hum
  3. crock
  4. flummer
  5. claptrap
  6. rat
  7. snide
  1. take-in
  2. blague
  3. bosh
  4. quackery
  5. shenanigan
  6. bamboozle
  7. fudge
  1. gammon
  2. bambosh
  3. blarney
  4. bother
  5. confounded
  6. dor
  7. humbuggery
  1. flimflam
  2. flummery
  3. flannel
  4. hornswoggle
  5. snake oil
  6. rot
  7. rotter
  1. sham
  2. Barney
  3. do
  4. fraud
  5. gum
  6. hoax
  7. humbug
  1. regular

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. recurrent
  1. cvccvc

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Lists

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Comments

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  • Louises Humbug in northern Australia is often just a way of life. The relentlessly persistant making of demands until the demands are met. Usually the person doing the humbugging is in a relationship with the humbugee that entitles the humbugger to make demands and there will be someone else whom the humbugee can legitimately humbug and so the cycle goes on. Gets nasty when grog (alcohol) and domestic violence break down cultural commitments. May 21, 2012

  • sxoidmal From the Editor's Drawer of 'Harper's New Monthly Magazine,' No. CCLXXXVI--March 1874--Vol. XLVIII.

    Speaking of the word "humbug," DeQuincey says "it rests upon a very firm and comprehensive basis. It can not be rendered adequately either by German or by Greek, the two richest of human languages. Its origin, however, is wrapped in doubt, the stories concerning it being vague and uncertain. The following I regard as the most trustworthy: At one time there was war between Germany and Austria, and constantly the wildest and most incredible stories concerning the victory or defeat of the German arms would be spread, entirely without truth. They were all traced to Hamburg; so, whenever any thing marvelous was announced, men would say, 'Oh! that is a Hamburg,' and finally a 'humbug.' " Sep 20, 2009

  • madmouth right. that's the only way. *sputtering rage* Jul 28, 2009

  • bilby "The Mayor of Alice Springs, Damien Ryan, says the new by-laws are what the community wants.
    'Begging is an issue that is not very acceptable in the fact that people prey on other people, they prey on the elderly, they prey on visitors, they prey on families,' he said. 'I mean begging, or humbugging, is something that is not appreciated in the community. We don't have anyway to stamp that out, that's why this has been brought about.'
    He rejected suggestions the by-laws were racist."
    - Katrina Bolton, Plan to strip blankets from Alice homeless, abc.net.au, 27 July 2009. Jul 28, 2009

  • garyth123 The prevalence of humbug by Max Black. Dec 25, 2008

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‘humbug’ has been looked up 3283 times, loved by 8 people, added to 48 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.