huckster

American  

[huhk-ster] / ˈhʌk stər /

noun

1. a retailer of small articles, especially a peddler of fruits and vegetables; hawker.

2. a person who employs showy methods to effect a sale, win votes, etc..

   the crass methods of political hucksters.

3. a cheaply mercenary person.

4. Informal.

   1. a persuasive and aggressive salesperson.

   2. a person who works in the advertising industry, especially one who prepares aggressive advertising for radio and television.

---

verb (used with or without object)

• hucksters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• huckstered,
  past participle,  past
• huckstering
  present participle

1. to deal, as in small articles, or to make petty bargains.

   to huckster fresh corn; to huckster for a living.

2. to sell or promote in an aggressive and flashy manner.

huckster British  

/ ˈhʌkstə /

noun

1. a person who uses aggressive or questionable methods of selling

2. rare a person who sells small articles or fruit in the street

3. a person who writes for radio or television advertisements

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verb

1. (tr) to peddle

2. (tr) to sell or advertise aggressively or questionably

3. to haggle (over)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hucksterism
  noun
• hucksterish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• huckstering
  present
• huckstered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• huckster
  simple
• hucksters
  simple
• have huckstered
  perfect
• has huckstered
  perfect
• am huckstering
  progressive
• are huckstering
  progressive
• is huckstering
  progressive
• have been huckstering
  perfect progressive
• has been huckstering
  perfect progressive

Past

• huckstered
  simple
• had huckstered
  perfect
• was huckstering
  progressive
• were huckstering
  progressive
• had been huckstering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will huckster
  simple
• will have huckstered
  perfect
• will be huckstering
  progressive
• will have been huckstering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of huckster

1150–1200; Middle English huccstere (perhaps cognate with Middle Dutch hokester ), equivalent to hucc- haggle (cognate with dialectal German hucken to huckster) + -stere -ster

Explanation

A huckster is someone who tries to sell you something that's not very well made, or isn't worth the price. If someone tries to sell you a bottle of Love Potion #9, call him a huckster. While a huckster is primarily a seller of cheap goods, like the people who sell imitation luxury handbags and watches on city sidewalks, you can also use the word to talk about extremely pushy salespeople. If you feel so pressured to make an offer on a new car that you leave the dealership feeling frustrated and daunted, you might say, "There's no way I'm buying a car from that huckster."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

huckster hucksters huckstered huckstering

Lon Chaney plays a huckster circus performer who pretends to have no arms.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2025

It turned out that Neumann was a world-class huckster and the company couldn’t justify such a big valuation, and WeWork aborted the IPO.

From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2023

He is the maximum huckster, in the tradition of American hucksterism.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2023

But preproduction is disrupted by downtrodden producer Brad Shlansky, a Long Island huckster who was forced to grow up fast and eventually ventured to Hollywood with his two sisters.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2023

I became a huckster like the ones that had fascinated me.

From "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli

In contrast Mr Gensler told the BBC in September that it was an industry “rife with fraud and hucksters and grifters”.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024

He seems unaware that the public is starting to realize AI technology falls far short of the promises made by Silicon Valley hucksters.

From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2024

More than a century ago, hucksters peddled magic elixirs from wagons.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024

Enterprising hucksters will post links to specific websites and intentionally misrepresent what’s on the pages connected to those links.

From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2023

Like Mamet characters, they populated an America that had never existed, a kid’s idea of sharpies and hucksters and underworld life.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

What wilt thou pay, thou huckstered That I let thee live another year?

From Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough by Morris, William

She would have huckstered around the neighborhood, and made a little income while it lasted; but now she had no heart for it.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 31, October, 1873 by Various

Now was the time to unlock the sealed fountain of Royal bounty, which had been infamously monopolised and huckstered, and to let it flow at large upon the whole people. 

From Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches, etc. by Morley, Henry

These loaves, which were huckstered along the lines by venders from Richmond, it must be understood, were not full-size, but a compromise between a loaf and a roll.

From The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson by Moore, Edward A.

District Judge Nina Wang about the huckstering, arguing that it was proof that Lindell wasn’t taking the matter seriously enough.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025

All during June we get Milken, a former federal fraud felon huckstering for cancer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2018

You have watched him in other sports, huckstering his prodigies, heard him braying and taking credit for their gifts, as if he personally engineered their molecular DNA.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 2, 2017

Skewering Madison Avenue for 60 Years FOR six decades, a magazine has been putting the “Mad” in Madison Avenue by lampooning — and frequently harpooning — the huckstering of the advertising industry.

From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2012

But the drivers seemed somehow menacing to her, with their fake friendliness and huckstering offers of a ride.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood