MOUNTEBANK

mountebank. Mountebank, v.t. to cheat, gull, impose upon

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Mount″e‐bank (?), n. [[It. montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank.]] 1. 1. One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack doctor.
Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank . . . is preferred before an able physician. Whitlock. 2. 2. Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack.
Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnot.