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 ); quack ¹, salve ¹, -er ¹

Example Sentences

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

From Time Magazine Archive

I have only to add that the union of the poisoner, the quacksalver, the alchemist, and the astrologer in the same person was familiar to the pretenders to the mystic sciences.

From Kenilworth by Scott, Walter, Sir

The answers were given with a solemn self-complacency, not unmixed with that shrewdness which was an essential attribute to the success of the ancient quacksalver.

From Rob of the Bowl, Vol. I (of 2) A Legend of St. Inigoe's by Kennedy, John P.

"In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a quacksalver."

From Kenilworth by Scott, Walter, Sir

I could say what I know of the virtue of it, for the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, crudities, obstructions, with a thousand of this kind; but I profess myself no quacksalver.

From The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) by Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry)