Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of mountebank.
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of mountebank.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But, alas! there was only one bed to be had: all the rest were inhabited by smugglers, whom the people of the house called mountebanks; and with one of whom the lady of the den told

    Highways & Byways in Sussex E.V. Lucas

  • But alas! there was only one bed to be had: all the rest were inhabited by smugglers, whom the people of the house called mountebanks; and with one of whom the lady of the den told Mr. Chute he might lie.

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2 Horace Walpole 1757

  • The sleep of his reason did not even bring forth monsters: poor Koestler simply gave a fair wind and his once-valued imprimatur to a succession of pathetic quacks and mountebanks.

    The Zealot 2009

  • Rant forth, like mountebanks, on "heaven and hell!"

    The Age Reviewed 2010

  • Mr. Greenblatt describes in teeming detail the thousands of clergymen, nobles, lawyers and knights who, in Konstanz, jostled alongside a ragtag entourage of merchants, mountebanks, barbers and acrobats.

    How the Secular World Began Eric Ormsby 2011

  • But so too do lazy parents, mountebanks hawking educational drivel, inattentive, idle, or corrupt state legislators, greedy and unprincipled textbook companies, out-of-touch professors at schools of education, and incompetent or cowardly boards of education.

    Willingham: 'Superman' is entertainment, nothing more Valerie Strauss 2010

  • It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.

    Think Progress » Fox News Devastated Over Arrest Of ACORN Pimp, Says The Story Probably Needs ‘A Lot Of Context’ 2010

  • The sleep of his reason did not even bring forth monsters: poor Koestler simply gave a fair wind and his once-valued imprimatur to a succession of pathetic quacks and mountebanks.

    The Zealot 2009

  • Television, after all, is not a medium that promotes the careers of charlatans, nitwits and mountebanks, as I was remarking to Piers Morgan only the other day.

    Football addicts will take whatever junk they can get | Harry Pearson 2011

  • But it must be admitted that writers, like other mendicants and mountebanks, frequently do try to attract attention.

    Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Paradox 2010

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