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Humbug   /hˈəmbˌəg/   Listen
noun
Humbug  n.  
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.


verb
Humbug  v. t.  (past & past part. humbugged; pres. part. humbugging)  To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Humbug" Quotes from Famous Books



... of that solemn tomfoolery, were "taught" by the arithmetic teachers in the academies of the eighteenth century, because they are utterly ignorant, and know themselves to be utterly ignorant, of the reality of the subject, and because, therefore, they have to humbug the parent and pass the time by unreal inventions. The case is not a bit better in the higher grade schools. They do not do so much of the bogus teaching of English, but they do ...
— Mankind in the Making • H. G. Wells
... girl. But even if older boys and girls kept their mouths shut, the time would surely come when a growing mind would begin puzzling, reasoning, doubting, and by putting two and two together, would be forced to the conclusion that this pretty idea was only a make-believe, a myth, a humbug. A little further reflection might tell it that the myth must have been invented by some one, long ago, and was kept alive and carried on by people, generation after generation, on account of the value and influence it was found to have ...
— Heart and Soul • Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
... surely can't suppose that there can be any puritanic humbug about Miss Schley or anything she has ...
— The Woman With The Fan • Robert Hichens
... book which can instruct one to read the human countenance correctly; and some special circumstance must have roused the suspicions of these four persons so much as to cause them to make these observations, and they were not as usual deceived by the humbug of this skilled actor, a past master in the ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... or a humbug? a patriot or a pretender? Ask Vermont and she cries "Nulli secundus!" Ask New York and the reply ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various


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