MOUNTEBANK


Meaning of MOUNTEBANK in English

I. ˈmau̇n-ti-ˌbaŋk noun

Etymology: Italian montimbanco, from montare to mount + in in, on + banco, banca bench

Date: 1577

1. : a person who sells quack medicines from a platform

2. : a boastful unscrupulous pretender : charlatan

• moun·te·bank·ery -ˌbaŋ-k(ə-)rē noun

II. verb

Date: 1607

transitive verb

obsolete : to beguile or transform by trickery

I'll mountebank their loves — Shakespeare

intransitive verb

: to play the mountebank

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate English vocabulary.      Энциклопедический словарь английского языка Merriam Webster.