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snake oil
noun
Examples of snake oil in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Burton does take some nice jabs at the now, from therapy culture and selfie addiction to influencers, the snake oil salesman of the Instagram age.
—Karen D'souza, The Mercury News, 25 Sep. 2024
Photograph: Astell & Kern Accessories are where the vast majority of audio snake oil shows up.
—Parker Hall, WIRED, 15 Sep. 2024
Since the dawn of diet culture, people have fallen for all sorts of snake oil that can be ineffective or downright dangerous.
—Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 16 Aug. 2024
Read more Letters to the Editor. $20B housing bond
should be voted down
The $20 billion housing bond that will be on the Nov. 5 ballot is like snake oil.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 30 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for snake oil
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'snake oil.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1917, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near snake oil
Cite this Entry
“Snake oil.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snake%20oil. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.
Medical Definition
snake oil
noun
: any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without having had the claims of their medical worth or properties substantiated by scientific tests
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