Adjacent Words

buncombe definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements) [syn: bunk, bunkum, buncombe, guff, rot, hogwash]

Merriam Webster's

noun see bunkum

Oxford Reference Dictionary

var. of BUNKUM.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Buncombe Bun"combe, Bunkum Bun"kum, n. [Buncombe a county of North Carolina.] Speech-making for the gratification of constituents, or to gain public applause; flattering talk for a selfish purpose; anything said for mere show. [Cant or Slang, U.S.] All that flourish about right of search was bunkum -- all that brag about hanging your Canada sheriff was bunkum . . . slavery speeches are all bunkum. --Haliburton. To speak for Buncombe, to speak for mere show, or popularly. Note: ``The phrase originated near the close of the debate on the famous `Missouri Question,' in the 16th Congress. It was then used by Felix Walker -- a na["i]ve old mountaineer, who resided at Waynesville, in Haywood, the most western country of North Carolina, near the border of the adjacent county of Buncombe, which formed part of his district. The old man rose to speak, while the house was impatiently calling for the `Question,' and several members gathered round him, begging him to desist. He preserved, however, for a while, declaring that the people of his district expected it, and that he was bound to `make a speech for Buncombe.''' --W. Darlington.

Moby Thesaurus

Washingtonese, adulation, balls, baloney, big talk, bilge, blague, blah, blah-blah, blandishment, blarney, bop, bosh, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, cajolement, cajolery, claptrap, compliment, crap, eyewash, fair words, fancy talk, fawning, federalese, fine talk, fish story, flam, flapdoodle, flattery, flimflam, gammon, gas, gobbledygook, grease, guff, gup, highfalutin, highfaluting, hogwash, hoke, hokum, honeyed phrases, honeyed words, hooey, hot air, humbug, humbuggery, incense, jiggery-pokery, malarkey, moonshine, official jargon, officialese, oil, palaver, piffle, political doubletalk, poppycock, praise, pretty lies, pussyfooting, rot, scat, shit, soap, soft soap, sweet nothings, sweet talk, sweet words, sycophancy, tall story, tall talk, tommyrot, tripe, wheedling, wind