noun
Meaning 1
One who sells dubious medicines.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
mountebank
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈmaʊntəˌbæŋk/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
noun
Meaning 2
One who sells by deception; a con artist.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: charlatan, conman, fake, quack, bristler, bunco artist, bunco-steerer, chiseler, con artist, confidence artist, confidence trickster, flimflammer, grifter, lugger, magsman, mountebank, saltimbanco, sharpster, sharker, shark-gull, slicker, smooth operator, spiv
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Any boastful, false pretender.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
An acrobat.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To act as a mountebank.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To cheat by boasting and false pretenses.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: charlatan
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: deceiver, cheat, cheater, trickster, beguiler, slicker
Narrower terms: phrenologist, craniologist, quack
History
Etymology
From archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), contracted from monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).
Across languages
Translations
9 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: دَجّال (dajjāl) — charlatan
- Arabic: مُشَعْوِذ (mušaʕwiḏ) — charlatan
- Bulgarian: шарлатанин (šarlatanin) — charlatan
- Dutch: kwakzalver — charlatan
- Dutch: charlatan — charlatan
- Dutch: oplichter — charlatan
- Dutch: bedrieger — charlatan
- Ancient Greek: ὀχλαγωγός (okhlagōgós) — charlatan
- Ukrainian: шарлатан (šarlatan) — charlatan