Bar ‧ num, P.T. /ˈbɑːnəm $ ˈbɑːr-/ BrE AmE
(1810–91) a US businessman who started the American Museum, where he charged people to look at strange-looking humans such as the first ↑ Siamese twin s , Chang and Eng, and the ↑ midget (=a very small person) , General Tom Thumb. He is known especially for starting a circus called The Greatest Show on Earth , and later the Barnum and Bailey Circus . He was one of the first businessmen to understand the importance of ↑ publicity and was famous for saying ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’.