quacksalver

American  

[kwak-sal-ver] / ˈkwækˌsæl vər /

noun

1. a quack doctor.

2. a charlatan.

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quacksalver British  

/ ˈkwækˌsælvə /

noun

1. an archaic word for quack 2

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Etymology

Origin of quacksalver

1570–80; < early Dutch (now kwakzalver ); see quack ¹, salve ¹, -er ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quacksalver

To Johnson, a flatterer was a "claw-back"; a bad doctor, a "quacksalver."

From Time Magazine Archive

The bolster wrapped round his nose and the two ends kissed behind his head, and his forehead resounded, and had he been Goliath, or Julius Caesar, instead of an old quacksalver, down he had gone.

From The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade

I have done ill to unbosom myself so far to this poisonous quacksalver.

From The Fair Maid of Perth Or, St. Valentine's Day by Sir Walter Scott

"In other words," said Tressilian, "he was a quacksalver and common cheat; but what has all this to do with my nag, and the shoe which he has lost?"

From Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott

The bolster wrapped round his nose and the two ends kissed behind his head, and his forehead resounded, and had he been Goliath, or Julius Cæsar, instead of an old quacksalver, down he had gone.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

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