I. ˈmau̇ntəˌbaŋk, -aiŋk noun
( -s )
Etymology: Italian montambanco, montimbanco, from montare to mount, climb (from — assumed — Vulgar Latin) + in in, on (from Latin) + banco, banca bench — more at mount , in , bank
1.
a. : an itinerant hawker of pills and patent medicines : pitchman , quack
bought an unction of a mountebank — Shakespeare
b. : an entertainer (as a juggler or magician) employed by a quack to attract a crowd
three or four mountebanks … manipulated their blue and yellow lion — Nora Waln
2. : a pretender to competence or knowledge : charlatan , swindler
almost all politicians were frauds and mountebanks — J.T.Farrell
II. transitive verb
obsolete : to beguile or transform by trickery
I'll mountebank their loves — Shakespeare
amazed to see their money mountebanked to mercury — Daniel Defoe
intransitive verb
: to play the mountebank
you'd better stop mountebanking round this town — J.B.Priestley