Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Empty talk; pointless speechmaking; balderdash.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Cant or Slang, U.S. Speech-making for the gratification of constituents, or to gain public applause; flattering talk for a selfish purpose; anything said for mere show.
- noun to speak for mere show, or popularly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative spelling of
bunkum .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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They were from all over the map -- "complete hooey" from _Minority Report_, "buncombe" from _The New Republic_, "as truthful as Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound" from an article on pedagogy in the _Sun_.
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But to an intelligent worker such sermons sound like capitalistic propaganda, upon which he is constantly being fed by every labor-exploiting concern in the country, and quite naturally he tries to avoid getting an extra dose of the same kind of buncombe on Sunday ....
The Necessity of Atheism David Marshall Brooks
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I never have and never will resort to 'buncombe' for the purpose of securing my own advancement.
Forty-Six Years in the Army John M. Schofield
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Neither General Kearney nor Mason had much respect for this land of "buncombe," but assumed the true doctrine that
Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals David Widger
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It is the purest kind of buncombe for any man to say that democracy is the millenium, just as it is lunacy for the Bolshevist to say that to introduce his system would introduce the millenium.
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What is the origin of the term "buncombe" as popularly used?
Southern Literature From 1579-1895 A comprehensive review, with copious extracts and criticisms for the use of schools and the general reader Louise Manly 1896
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It must be remembered, however, that the Americans of both parties in the North are more in the habit of "speaking daggers" at each other than of using them; and that, perhaps, all this loud talking is but the bark of a dog that will not bite -- mere "buncombe," intended for present effect.
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What a great deal of "buncombe" the American populace will bear!
Echoes of the Week 1864
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Neither General Kearney nor Mason had much respect for this land of "buncombe," but assumed the true doctrine that
The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Volume I., Part 1 1855
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Neither General Kearney nor Mason had much respect for this land of "buncombe," but assumed the true doctrine that
whichbe commented on the word buncombe
Speech-making intended for the mass media. (from Phrontistery)
May 23, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word buncombe
unmasked media
October 16, 2011