Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hawker of quack medicines who attracts customers with stories, jokes, or tricks.
  • noun A flamboyant charlatan.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cheat by unscrupulous and impudent arts; gull.
  • To introduce or insinuate by delusive arts or pretensions.
  • To play the mountebank: with indefinite it.
  • noun A peripatetic quack; one who prescribes and sells nostrums at fairs and similar gatherings.
  • noun Hence Any impudent and unscrupulous pretender; a charlatan.
  • noun The short-tailed African kite, Helotarsus ecaudatus: so called from its aërial tumbling.
  • Pertaining to or consisting of mountebanks; sham; quack: as, a mountebank doctor.
  • Produced by quackery or jugglery.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To cheat by boasting and false pretenses; to gull.
  • noun One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack doctor.
  • noun Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack.
  • intransitive verb To play the mountebank.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who sells dubious medicines.
  • noun One who sells by deception; a con artist; a charlatan.
  • verb intransitive To act as a mountebank.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian montambanco, from the phrase monta im banco, one gets up onto the bench : monta, one gets up, third person sing. present tense of montare, to get up (from Vulgar Latin *montāre; see mount) + in, on, onto (from Latin; see in–) + banco, bench (variant of banca, from Old Italian, bench, table, from Old High German bank).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian montambanco ("quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares") contracted from Italian monta-in-banco ("mount on bench").

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Examples

  • In those days, pundit would have more likely been a synonym for 'mountebank', a delicious word, which has disappeared from usage.

    Journalmalists and the Hemingway Panic 2008

  • He spoke the word "mountebank" sneeringly, and John flushed.

    John of the Woods Abbie Farwell Brown 1899

  • He went instantly to the prison, descended to the cell of the "mountebank," called him by name, took him by the hand, and spoke to him.

    Les Miserables, Volume I, Fantine 1862

  • Ivan, for it was he who started the "mountebank" bear, that came near mounting him on the moment of their meeting it.

    Bruin The Grand Bear Hunt Mayne Reid 1850

  • "mountebank," as he named the man who had put his nose out of joint.

    Beverly of Graustark George Barr McCutcheon 1897

  • "mountebank" performance as they called it, -- had been everything to them that was sacred in its devout simplicity.

    The Treasure of Heaven A Romance of Riches Marie Corelli 1889

  • "mountebank," called him by name, took him by the hand, and spoke to him.

    Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1843

  • One can then be any kind of mountebank or robber, and yet rest assured of the ladies 'homage. "

    The Sins of Séverac Bablon Sax Rohmer 1921

  • In the late sixteenth century, English borrowed this word, now spelled mountebank, to refer to those roaming charlatans who would step onto a box or bench to attract the attention of potential buyers of such dubious offerings as “snake oil” medicine.1

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • In the late sixteenth century, English borrowed this word, now spelled mountebank, to refer to those roaming charlatans who would step onto a box or bench to attract the attention of potential buyers of such dubious offerings as “snake oil” medicine.1

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

Comments

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  • I found it on P18 of William Bonner's and Addison Wiggin's "Financial Reckoning Day":

    A certain level of madness is often an advantage in the business and entertainment world, but this was too extreme for that. Purging the planet of ignorance? Only a buffoon or mountebank would say such a foolish thing. Saylor was clearly one or the other--maybe both.

    May 11, 2007

  • charlatan

    "A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes"

    A mountebank practices unsubstantiated medicine as an alchemist practices unsubstantiated science

    August 13, 2007

  • Alex Trebek: That's beautiful. And finally, Sean Connery's also here let's move on to Double Jeopardy where the categories -

    Sean Connery: Not so fast Trebek.

    Alex Trebek: I really thought that was going to work.

    Sean Connery: Well, you were wrong, you mountebank. I pose a conundrum to ya, I riddle if you will

    Alex Trebek: I don't want to hear it.

    Sean Connery: What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck and I can't remember how it ends, but your mother's a whore. Laughs

    January 23, 2008

  • I have to say, that is my favorite SNL moment of all time.

    January 23, 2008

  • See also mountie bank.

    January 23, 2008

  • Sweeney Todd: "And furthermore, "Signor", I have serviced no kings, yet I wager that I can shave a cheek with ten times more dexterity than any street mountebank."

    August 4, 2008

  • "CORIOLANUS: Pray, be content:

    Mother, I am going to the market-place;

    Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,

    Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd

    Of all the trades in Rome."

    - William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.

    August 28, 2009

  • There was an early silent comedian called Monty Banks.

    January 29, 2010