quacksalver
Americannoun
-
a quack doctor.
-
a charlatan.
noun
Etymology
Origin of quacksalver
1570–80; < early Dutch (now kwakzalver ); see quack 1, salve 1, -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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 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
"In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a quacksalver."
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.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
