Crossword clues for mountebank
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mountebank \Mount"e*bank\, v. t.
To cheat by boasting and false pretenses; to gull. [R.]
--Shak.
Mountebank \Mount"e*bank\, v. i. To play the mountebank.
Mountebank \Mount"e*bank\, n. [It. montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank.]
-
One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack doctor.
Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank . . . is preferred before an able physician.
--Whitlock. -
Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack.
Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake.
--Arbuthnot.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"a doctor that mounts a bench in the market, and boasts his infallible remedies and cures" [Johnson], 1570s, from Italian montambanco, contraction of monta in banco "quack, juggler," literally "mount on bench" (to be seen by crowd), from monta, imperative of montare "to mount" (see mount (v.)) + banco, variant of banca "bench" (see bank (n.2)). Figurative and extended senses from 1580s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 One who sells dubious medicines. 2 One who sells by deception; a con artist; a charlatan. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To act as a mountebank. 2 (context transitive English) To cheat by boasting and false pretenses.
WordNet
n. a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes [syn: charlatan]
Wikipedia
Mountebank may refer to:
- Charlatan, a swindler
- Montambanco or quack, a fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill
- Monte Bank, a card game
- Three-card Monte, a confidence game
- The Mountebanks, a comic opera by Alfred Cellier and W. S. Gilbert
Usage examples of "mountebank".
We carried him into the Agricultural Hall among the prize apples and the pumpkins, summoned Squire Randolph from the cattle pens, and brought the mountebank before him.
The old mountebank promised to cast his knives into the river and get at something else.
Besides, I wished to know what had become of the old mountebank, and it was a thing I soon discovered.
The face of the old mountebank did not whiten, but instead it grew stern and resolute, and the muscles came out in it so that it seemed a thing of cords under the tanned skin.
Her fork was still there when Sheriff David Mountebank walked in, Martha at his heels offering him food and coffee.
Quinlan said, not knowing for several moments who the hell David Mountebank was talking about.
David Mountebank watched Quinlan pour water in the old kettle and turn on the heat beneath it.
David Mountebank sighed, took a deep drink of the brandied tea James handed him, shuddered a bit, then grinned as he patted his belly.
Sheriff David Mountebank was surprised when he was told about the Town Fund.
After Martha returned to the kitchen, Sally told Thomas Shredder, Corey Harper, and David Mountebank, who had easily been persuaded to return for dinner and another conference, about the cemetery.
There are three FBI agents here, and Sheriff David Mountebank knows everything they know, maybe more.
William, after introductions, had been treated with most easy courtesy, while Holt explained the situation to the baronet briefly, dwelling rather on the problem of the mountebank than the injured girl.
They ran off from home as young folk do, and were saved or preyed on by this mountebank, whose name is Marcus Dennett, she believes.
Deb had run before, especially in the last two months, not always with the mountebank directing.
Jeremiah, it appeared the target of his wrath was the mountebank, Marcus Dennett.