mountebank

[ moun-tuh-bangk ]
See synonyms for mountebank on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person who sells quack medicines, as from a platform in public places, attracting and influencing an audience by tricks, storytelling, etc.

  2. any charlatan or quack.

verb (used without object)
  1. to act or operate as a mountebank.

Origin of mountebank

1
1570–80; (<Middle French ) <Italian montimbanco one who climbs on a bench, equivalent to mont(are) to climb (see mount1) + -im-, variant of in on + banco bench (see bank2)

Other words for mountebank

Other words from mountebank

  • moun·te·bank·er·y [moun-tuh-bangk-uh-ree], /ˈmaʊn təˌbæŋk ə ri/, noun

Words Nearby mountebank

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mountebank in a sentence

  • William Read died; originally a cobbler, became a mountebank, and practiced medicine by the light of nature!

  • Surely, if one such mountebank can cheer her thus, she shall be fed on white magic each day.

    God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
  • I'm better than a young mountebank—I've vanity enough to say that.

    The Tragic Muse | Henry James
  • For my gibbosities tickled the taste of a travelling mountebank.

    The Proud Prince | Justin Huntly McCarthy
  • I have really, then, the vastly prodigious honour to be exalted in your fair graces to the level of a mountebank?

    Camilla | Fanny Burney

British Dictionary definitions for mountebank

mountebank

/ (ˈmaʊntɪˌbæŋk) /


noun
  1. (formerly) a person who sold quack medicines in public places

  2. a charlatan; fake

verb
  1. (intr) to play the mountebank

Origin of mountebank

1
C16: from Italian montambanco a climber on a bench, from montare to mount ² + banco bench (see also bank 1)

Derived forms of mountebank

  • mountebankery, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012