Definition of HUCKSTER

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Noun

Hawkers, peddlers, and hucksters have been selling things out of the back of wagons, in narrow alleys, and on the fringes of towns for years (though nowadays, they're more likely to plug their wares on television or the Internet). Of those three words-"hawker," "peddler," or "huckster"-the one that has been around the longest in English is "huckster." It has been with us for over 800 years, and it derives from the Middle Dutch word hokester, which in turn comes from the verb hoeken, meaning "to peddle." "Peddler" (or "pedlar") was first attested in the 14th century, and this sense of "hawker" has only been appearing in English texts since the early 1500s.

Examples of huckster in a Sentence

Noun

hucksters outside the auditorium selling everything from key chains to life-size cutouts of the rock star

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Some accuse Dyomkin of being a political huckster who is mainly after the $15 fee each new member of his union must pay, followed by monthly dues of around $3. — Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, "Russians embrace Soviet ideals – by not paying their gas bills," 30 Jan. 2019 Besides featuring fantastic archival concert and behind-the-scenes footage, the film is shot through with a playful sense of trickster/huckster fabulism. — Mark Olsen, latimes.com, "Indie Focus: The mournful zombie comedy of ‘The Dead Don’t Die’," 14 June 2019 While some of it feels jokey, another part of me suspects that the romantic notion of the gentleman thief, the huckster in a tuxedo, has found a stronghold in this place. — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, "The Vault, San Francisco’s new Financial District blockbuster, comes up empty," 13 June 2019 His tone and cadence take after the saccharine blather of the great Christian pitchmen of radio and TV, the hucksters who mastered the catch in the throat, the tremulous quaver and gulp, because as every pro knows that’s where the money is. — Barton Swaim, WSJ, "Politics Books: The Fire This Time," 27 Sep. 2018 Gass may have been mocking religious hucksters but the speech of the land was part of him, and his ranging, learned works of literary criticism sometimes remind you of a stem-winding tent revivalist evangelizing for Rilke or Rabelais. — Sam Sacks, WSJ, "‘The William H. Gass Reader’ Review: The Speech of the Land Was Part of Him," 1 Nov. 2018 But Cooper was a huckster who took more than a swig of his own Kool-Aid. — Andrew Stuttaford, WSJ, "‘Pale Horse Rider’ Review: A Huckster at the Mic," 19 Sep. 2018 First came Michael Wolff, the author and journalistic huckster whose book making bold claims about what happened behind the scenes at the White House was irresistible for the left and the media alike. — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, "James Comey, Stormy Daniels and the flawed vessels commandeering the Trump resistance," 19 Apr. 2018 In 2011 according to the Washington Post, a congressional probe found at least 1,800 counterfeit parts, with an estimated 1,000,000 or more counterfeit parts hiding in the Pentagon's global spare parts system, sold by hucksters making a cheap buck. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "The Pentagon Uses Plant DNA to Catch Counterfeit Parts," 21 Nov. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'huckster.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.