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

Example Sentences

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

From Time Magazine Archive

"Pshaw! he is a quacksalver, and mountebank, and beggar."

From Peveril of the Peak by Scott, Walter, Sir

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

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 Scott, Walter, Sir

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 Reade, Charles