Adjacent Words

Humbug definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HUM'BUG, n. An imposition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: pretentious or silly talk or writing [syn: baloney, boloney, bilgewater, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle]
2: communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive [syn: humbug, snake oil]
3: something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery, hoax, humbug, put-on] v
1: trick or deceive

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1751 1. a. something designed to deceive and mislead b. a willfully false, deceptive, or insincere person 2. an attitude or spirit of pretense and deception 3. nonsense, drivel 4. British a hard usually mint-flavored candy Synonyms: see imposture • humbuggery noun II. verb (humbugged; humbugging) Date: 1751 transitive verb deceive, hoax intransitive verb to engage in a hoax or deception

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 deceptive or false talk or behaviour. 2 an impostor. 3 Brit. a hard boiled sweet usu. flavoured with peppermint. --v. (humbugged, humbugging) 1 intr. be or behave like an impostor. 2 tr. deceive, hoax. Derivatives: humbuggery n. Etymology: 18th c.: orig. unkn.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Humbug Hum"bug`, n. [Prob. fr. hum to impose on, deceive + bug a frightful object.] 1. An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax. 2. A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness. 3. One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor. --Sir J. Stephen.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Humbug Hum"bug`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humbugged; p. pr. & vb. n. Humbugging.] To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe someone's language or behaviour as humbug, you mean that it is dishonest or insincere. There was all the usual humbug and obligatory compliments from ministers... [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. (Colloq.) 1. Imposition, imposture, fetch, deception, fraud, trick, cheat, gammon, dodge, gouge, blind, feint, chouse, hoax. 2. Charlatanry, charlatanism, quackery, mummery, cant, hypocrisy. 3. Impostor, charlatan, quack, cheat. II. v. a. (Colloq.) Deceive, cheat, cozen, swindle, trick, hoax, befool, chouse, impose upon.

Moby Thesaurus

absurdity, acting, affectation, amphigory, appearance, attitudinizing, babble, babblement, balderdash, balls, baloney, bamboozle, beguile, betray, bibble-babble, blabber, blague, blagueur, blather, blatherskite, bluff, bluffer, bluffing, bombast, bosh, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, cajole, charlatan, charlatanism, charlatanry, cheat on, cheating, circumvent, claptrap, color, coloring, conjure, crap, deceive, deception, delude, delusion, diddle, disguise, dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, double-cross, double-talk, drivel, drool, dupe, eyewash, facade, face, fake, fakement, faker, fakery, faking, false air, false front, false show, falsity, feigning, feint, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, flam, flapdoodle, flimflam, flummery, folderol, forestall, four-flushing, fourflusher, fraud, front, fudge, fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, get around, gibber, gibberish, gibble-gabble, gilt, gloss, gobbledygook, gull, gyp, hoax, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hoke, hokum, hooey, hornswaggle, humbuggery, impersonator, impostor, imposture, jabber, jargon, jiggery-pokery, juggle, let down, malarkey, malingerer, masquerade, meretriciousness, mislead, mock, moonshine, mountebank, mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, ostentation, outmaneuver, outreach, outsmart, outward show, outwit, overreach, pack of nonsense, palaver, phony, piffle, pigeon, play one false, playacting, pose, poser, poseur, posing, posture, prate, prattle, pretender, pretense, pretension, pretext, put something over, quack, quackery, quackishness, quackism, quacksalver, quackster, rant, representation, rigamarole, rigmarole, ringer, rip-off, rodomontade, rot, rubbish, saltimbanco, seeming, sell, semblance, sham, shammer, show, simulacrum, simulation, skimble-skamble, snow, speciousness, spoof, string along, stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence, take in, trash, trick, trumpery, twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, two-time, vaporing, varnish, waffling, window dressing