mountebank

5 synonyms for mountebank, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A person who sells medicines that do not really work.

Synonyms

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

charlatan chiseler conman grifter quack

A person who sells medicines that do not really work.

charlatan

Someone who tricks people into buying things; a swindler.

“Gary Dahl, the man behind that scheme—described variously as a marketing genius and a genial mountebank—died on March 23 at 78.”

chiseler conman grifter quack

Comes from archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), a contraction of monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).

chiseler quack charlatan grifter conman