Crossword clues for humbug
humbug
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Humbug \Hum"bug`\, n. [Prob. fr. hum to impose on, deceive + bug a frightful object.]
An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax.
A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.
One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor.
--Sir J. Stephen.
Humbug \Hum"bug`\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humbugged; p. pr. & vb. n. Humbugging.] To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1751, student slang, "trick, jest, hoax, deception," also as a verb, of unknown origin. A vogue word of the early 1750s; its origin was a subject of much whimsical speculation even then.
Wiktionary
interj. nonsense! n. 1 (context: dated) A hoax, prank or jest 2 (context: dated) A fraud or sham 3 (context: dated) A fraudster or cheat 4 (context British English) A type of chewy sweet (candy) vb. 1 To play a trick on. 2 To cheat, swindle.
WordNet
n. pretentious or silly talk or writing [syn: baloney, boloney, bilgewater, bosh, drool, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle]
communication (writen or spoken) intended to deceive [syn: snake oil]
something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery, hoax, put-on]
v. trick or deceive
[also: humbugging, humbugged]
Wikipedia
A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclamation to mean nonsense or gibberish.
When referring to a person, a humbug means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. In modern usage, the word is most associated with a character named Ebenezer Scrooge, created by Charles Dickens in a book called "A Christmas Carol". His famous reference to Christmas, "Bah! Humbug!", declaring Christmas to be a fraud, is commonly used in stage and television versions of A Christmas Carol and also appeared frequently in the original book. The word is also prominently used in The Wizard of Oz, in which the Scarecrow refers to the wizard as a humbug, and the wizard agrees.
Another use of the word was by John Collins Warren, a Harvard Medical School professor who worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Warren performed the first public operation with the use of ether anesthesia, administered by William Thomas Green Morton, a dentist. To the stunned audience at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Warren declared, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug."
Humbug is a text-based adventure video game written by British programmer Graham Cluley in 1990.
Humbug was a humor magazine edited 1957–1958 by Harvey Kurtzman with satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs. Nine of the eleven issues were published in a black-and-white comic book-sized format.
With fatally accurate irony, Kurtzman delivered his declaration of editorial principles in the first issue:
"We won't write for morons. We won't do anything just to get laughs. We won't be dirty. We won't be grotesque. We won't be in bad taste. We won't sell magazines."Several of the project's contributing artists had previously worked with Kurtzman when he was the editor of Mad, including Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Will Elder. The 32-page first issue (August 1957) featured a front cover by Elder (with the announcement "The End of the World Is Coming" inside a border design depicting contemporary life). Interior artwork was by Elder, Kurtzman, Wood, Davis, Jaffee and Arnold Roth. Outside writer contributions included a piece by the novelist and screenwriter Ira Wallach. Elder illustrated Kurtzman's satire of television's rigged Twenty One quiz show, and Davis spoofed the Elia Kazan film of Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll (1956). The second issue expanded from 32 pages to 48 pages.
Later issues included text pieces by Larry Siegel, who would soon move on to a 32-year stint with Mad. Al Jaffee returned to Mad in the same issue as Siegel, and has remained with the magazine for more than half a century. Wally Wood was the only artist to work simultaneously for Mad and Kurtzman's post-Mad projects; after Humbug folded, Wood was a Mad regular until 1964. It took Jack Davis seven years to return to Mad; the artist's second run at Mad lasted from 1965 to 1996.
Humbug is an exclamation pertaining to "nonsense, gibberish". Humbug (sweet) can also be a peppermint sweet.
Buck Mitty, known as Humbug, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Humbug was originally a super-villain but later became a super-hero and a member of the Heroes for Hire.
Humbugs are a traditional hard boiled sweet available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint and striped in two different colours (often black and white). Humbugs are typically cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophane, or pinched cylinders with a 90-degree turn between one end and the other (shaped like a pyramid with rounded edges) loose in a bag. Records of humbugs exist from as early as the 1820s, and they are referred to in the 1863 book Sylvia's Lovers as being a food from the North.
The name of the sweet is not related to the phrase "Bah, humbug" from Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol. That expression implies a general dissatisfaction with the Christmas season. However, offering humbugs around Christmas time is now seen by some as humorous or ironic, and was featured in an episode of Blackadder in this manner. While awaiting the appearance of a villain in the " The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes series, Jeremy Brett as Holmes admonishes Edward Hardwicke's Dr. Watson for offering Colin Jeavons' Inspector Lestrade one of these sweets saying, "Watson, this is no time for humbugs!"
"Humbug" is the twentieth episode of the second season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Darin Morgan and directed by Kim Manners. Morgan had previously appeared in a guest role as the Flukeman in an earlier episode of that season called " The Host". "Humbug" aired in the United States on March 31, 1995 on the Fox network. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Humbug" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.3, being watched by 9.8 million households in its initial broadcast. The episode received generally positive reviews and critics appreciated Morgan's unique writing style.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a series of murders in a community of former circus sideshow performers. Mulder believes the murderer to be the mysterious " Fiji mermaid", which Scully argues is only a hoax—a mere humbug.
"Humbug" was the first explicitly comedic episode in the series and Morgan later wrote three more scripts for the series that continued his comic take on the show. According to critical analysis of the episode, "Humbug" explored themes of " Otherness" and difference. Guest stars included real-life sideshow performers Jim Rose and The Enigma, as well as actors Michael J. Anderson and Vincent Schiavelli. "Humbug" was nominated for an Edgar Award and a Cinema Audio Society Award.
In northern Australian Aboriginal communities humbug is "unreasonable or excessive demands from family." The term can be used more broadly to cover other behaviours including street begging, sexual importuning and payback violence.
Humbug is the third studio album by the English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, first released on 19 August 2009 by Domino Records. The band started to write songs for the album towards the end of summer 2008, and finished it entirely on spring 2009.
Like their last release, Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug was released first in Japan, on 19 August 2009, followed by Australia, Brazil, Ireland and Germany, on 21 August 2009. It was then released in the UK on 24 August 2009, in the US the following day and in Greece on 31 August. The release preceded the band's headline performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals at the end of that week.
Usage examples of "humbug".
A Socialist movement which can swing the mass of the people behind it, drive the pro-Fascists out of positions of control, wipe out the grosser injustices and let the working class see that they have something to fight for, win over the middle classes instead of antagonizing them, produce a workable imperial policy instead of a mixture of humbug and Utopianism, bring patriotism and intelligence into partnership -- for the first time, a movement of such a kind becomes possible.
But it would be as dangerous to rely on him to expose all the quacks, humbugs and bunkum in the world as it would be to believe those same charlatans.
It is time for this practice of around-the-world humbug and cheatery to stop right now.
Hardboileds, toffee, fudge and allsorts, crunches, cracknels, humbugs, glaciers, marzipan, and butterwelsh for the Welsh.
I hope you will remember my small show of compassion today, as vividly as you may remember any of my occasional humbugs and hoaxes, fobberies and fooleries.
Show Bizniss, which Ive stroven to ornyment, is bein usurpt by Poplar Lecturs, as thay air kalled, tho in my pinion thay air poplar humbugs.
And in the face of the accumulating stresses created by the maladjustments of Versailles, this galaxy of humbugs to whom democracy had entrusted the direction of human beings--humbugs unavoidably, for the system insisted upon it regardless of the best intentions--was equally enigmatical and impotent.
For the economic rationale of this, I must refer disciples of Siegfried to a tract from my hand published by the Fabian Society and entitled The Impossibilities of Anarchism, which explains why, owing to the physical constitution of our globe, society cannot effectively organize the production of its food, clothes and housing, nor distribute them fairly and economically on any anarchic plan: nay, that without concerting our social action to a much higher degree than we do at present we can never get rid of the wasteful and iniquitous welter of a little riches and a deal of poverty which current political humbug calls our prosperity and civilization.
If he was amused at the ease with which fools can be humbugged, he must also have been astounded at the awful villainy of those who, perfect strangers to him, had perjured themselves for the sake of notoriety.
He even called the astute Terrapin a humbug, and toward midnight grew quarrelsome.
When Auris wanted to know what people somewhere were talking about, she sent the humbugs off to listen.
He heard Auris gabble something to the humbugs again, high and shrill, looked back as he reached the bushes, and saw her already outside, running towards the shrubbery on his right.
The humbugs were small, brown, bobtailed animals, built with spider leanness and very quick.
Villemin, having been humbugged once, would hold his course this time and it would be Bucephalas that would have to sheer off to avoid a collision.
Colonel Raden agreed that the decencies had somehow to be preserved, even at the cost of a certain amount of humbug.