mountebank

American  

[moun-tuh-bangk] / ˈmaʊn təˌbæŋk /

noun

1. a person who sells quack medicines, as from a platform in public places, attracting and influencing an audience by tricks, storytelling, etc.

   Synonyms:

   pitchman

2. any charlatan or quack.

   Synonyms:

   fraud, pretender, phony

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verb (used without object)

1. to act or operate as a mountebank.

mountebank British  

/ ˈmaʊntɪˌbæŋk /

noun

1. (formerly) a person who sold quack medicines in public places

2. a charlatan; fake

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verb

1. (intr) to play the mountebank

Other Word Forms

• mountebankery noun

Etymology

Origin of mountebank

1570–80; (< Middle French ) < Italian montimbanco one who climbs on a bench, equivalent to mont ( are ) to climb ( mount ¹ ) + -im-, variant of in on + banco bench ( bank ² )

Example Sentences

Mencken described Bryan as “a charlatan, a mountebank, a zany without sense or dignity.”

From Salon

Jay was so enamored of Malini that he devoted an entire chapter of his book, “Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women,” to the man he described as the “last of the mountebanks.”

From Seattle Times

In this world in which self-interested mountebanks command followers on social media and the airwaves by the millions, it doesn’t take much for a misinformation and disinformation campaign to cloud people’s minds.

From Los Angeles Times

Was it not a dangerous word, too closely connected to Hobbes and to dubious stories about sympathetic magic told by Digby—someone whom John Evelyn, another early member, could dismiss as an arrant mountebank?

From Literature

This is the best part of the book, with a cast list of colorful characters — spooks, crooked businessmen, mountebanks, ideologues and opportunists.

From New York Times