mountebank

noun

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moun·te·bank | \ ˈmau̇n-ti-ˌbaŋk

Definition of mountebank

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a person who sells quack medicines from a platform

2 : a boastful unscrupulous pretender : charlatan

mountebank

verb

mountebanked; mountebanking; mountebanks

Definition of mountebank (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

obsolete : to beguile or transform by trickery I'll mountebank their loves— William Shakespeare

intransitive verb

obsolete : to play the mountebank

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Noun

Mountebank derives from the Italian montimbanco, which was formed by combining the verb "montare" ("to mount"), the preposition "in" (converted to im, meaning "in" or "on"), and the noun "banco" ("bench"). Put these components together and you can deduce the literal origins of "mountebank" as someone mounted on a bench - the "bench" being the platform on which charlatans from the 16th and 17th centuries would stand to sell their phony medicines. Mountebanks often included various forms of light entertainment on stage in order to attract customers. Later, extended uses of "mountebank" referred to someone who falsely claims to have knowledge about a particular subject or a person who simply pretends to be something he or she is not in order to gain attention.

Examples of mountebank in a Sentence

Noun a gang of swindlers and mountebanks claimed that many doctors were frauds and mountebanks

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Or does the word seem a little shifty, denoting a modern-day mountebank (another great word), bent on self-promotion, unscrupulous precisely because no special degree is required? — Will Jeakle, Forbes, 29 June 2021 American politicians, the pusillanimous and the mountebanks and even their opposites, used to be as highfalutin as Foghorn Leghorn with their gibes, which made politics fun for fans of Shakespeare, the Bible or obscure history. — oregonlive, 31 Mar. 2020 He was ignored on almost every major issue by the incredible cast of fools and mountebanks with whom the president* has surrounded himself. — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 13 Mar. 2018 Laying it off on senior administration officials will no longer fly given the liars, hustlers, incompetents, poseurs and mountebanks who dominate this West Wing. — David Zurawik, baltimoresun.com, 9 Mar. 2018 The Presidency has hardly been free of mountebanks and worse. — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2017

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