snake oil
any of various liquid concoctions of questionable medical value sold as an all-purpose curative, especially by traveling hucksters.
Slang. deceptive talk or actions; hooey; bunkum: The governor promised to lower taxes, but it was the same old snake oil.
Origin of snake oil
1Other words from snake oil
- snake-oil, adjective
Words Nearby snake oil
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use snake oil in a sentence
Metaverse troubleshooting has gone the way of the snake oil salesman.
As hiring in the metaverse ramps up, experts caution against working with snake oil salesmen | Alexander Lee | November 22, 2021 | DigidayMetaverse troubleshooting, at least in part, has gone the way of the snake oil salesman.
As hiring in the metaverse ramps up, experts caution against working with snake oil salesmen | Alexander Lee | November 22, 2021 | DigidayThere are bad players out there, there is snake oil out there.
How Well+Good is using its newsroom’s knowledge to steer its commerce business | Kayleigh Barber | October 12, 2021 | DigidayPropagandists and scam artists have been selling their brand of proverbial snake oil for ages, all to bend people’s thinking to their goals.
A few simple tricks make fake news stories stick in the brain | Laura Sanders | May 4, 2021 | Science NewsIt’s instead narcissism, solipsism, sociopathy, hatred, snake oil.
Here the snake oil quotient is a bit more evident than in the skybox seats occupied by insights made using hard science.
All These AIDS ‘Cures’ Are a Fantasy—One That Can Cause Real Harm | Kent Sepkowitz | November 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhich of these foods have science to back them up, and which are nothing but snake oil?
Fish Oil, Turmeric, and Ginseng, Oh My! Are ‘Brain Foods’ B.S.? | Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD | October 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAmericans get riled up about creationists and climate change deniers, but lap up the quasi-religious snake oil at Whole Foods.
Whole Foods: America’s Temple of Pseudoscience | Michael Schulson | February 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBeware, too, of the snake-oil salesmen who promise permanently sharp knives.
Americans need protection from these snake-oil salesmen, and that protection depends almost entirely on Congress and the media.
Leslie H. Gelb: The Dangers of Warmongering on Syria, Iran | Leslie H. Gelb | March 9, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Other Idioms and Phrases with snake oil
see under banana oil.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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