mountebank
View all »Definitions (17)
American Heritage Dictionary (4)
- noun A hawker of quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes, or tricks.
- noun A flamboyant charlatan.
- intransitive verb To act as a mountebank.
Century Dictionary (9)
GNU Webster's 1913 (3)
WordNet (1)
Elsewhere on the web
View all » Examples
- Mr. Perkins made a shrewd and droll remark: 'If he had got his four thousand a year as a mountebank, he might have learnt to talk at the same time that he was getting his fortune.' — Life Of Johnson
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One of them, however, of more decent appearance, made me a very pleasing apology, repeating at the same time a French proverb--that a pope and a mountebank were above all law Amongst the commodities exhibited for sale, I was agreeably surprised to find two or more booths well supplied with English and French books; and my surprise was still greater, to find that the former had many purchasers.
— Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 -
Why not a Mexican policeman Because the mountebank was an American.
— The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes -
"Because the mountebank was an American.
— The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes -
One of them, however, of more decent appearance, made me a very pleasing apology, repeating at the same time a French proverb -- that a pope and a mountebank were above all law.
— Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808
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View all »Etymologies (4)
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
- Italian montambanco, from the phrase monta im banco, one gets up onto the bench : monta, one gets up, third person sing. present tense of montare, to get up (from Vulgar Latin *montāre; see mount1) + in, on, onto (from Latin; see in-2) + banco, bench (variant of banca, from Old Italian, bench, table, from Old High German bank).
Century Dictionary (2)
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet
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Pronunciations
/ (mounˈtə-băngkˌ)/
ahd pronounces "mountebank"
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American Heritage Dictionary