| mountebank | 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 infalliable remedies; a quack doctor. "Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank . Is preferred before an able physician." (Whitlock) 2. Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack. "Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake." (Arbuthnot) Origin: It. Montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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