Barmecide

American  

[bahr-muh-sahyd] / ˈbɑr məˌsaɪd /

noun

1. a member of a noble Persian family of Baghdad who, according to a tale in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, gave a beggar a pretended feast with empty dishes.

---

adjective

1. Barmecidal.

Barmecide British  

/ ˈbɑːmɪˌsaɪd /

adjective

1. lavish or plentiful in imagination only; illusory; sham

   a Barmecide feast

---

Etymology

Origin of Barmecide

< Persian Barmekī family name, literally, offspring of Barmek, with -ide -id ¹ for Persian -ī < Arabic

Example Sentences

The latter piece, titled “The Barmecide Feast,” is well built — down to the corny Late Empire porcelains employed as backdrop on the luminous white set.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2017

"It's a Barmecide feast, my dear!"—he had still, her kind friend, his note of grimness and also his penetration of eye.

From The Outcry by James, Henry

But a banquet in which the plates only are good is but a Barmecide feast, after all.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87, January, 1865 by Various

Barmecide, b�r′me-sīd, n. one who offers an imaginary or pretended banquet or other benefit.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

But one of them is always nailed; there is no escaping the Barmecide.

From Unicorns by Huneker, James