quack

noun

a quack selling fake medicines

Syn:

swindler, charlatan, mountebank, trickster, fraud, fraudster, impostor, hoaxer; informal con man, snake oil salesman, shark, grifter

••

quack, charlatan, dissembler, fake, impostor, mountebank

There are many different ways to describe a fake, a colloquial term for anyone who knowingly practices deception or misrepresentation. Someone who sells a special tonic that claims to do everything from curing the common cold to making hair grow on a bald man's head is called a quack, a term that refers to any fraudulent practitioner of medicine or law. Mountebank sometimes carries implications of quackery, but more often it refers to a self-promoting person who resorts to cheap tricks or undignified efforts to win attention (political mountebanks). A charlatan is usually a writer, speaker, preacher, professor, or some other "expert" who tries to conceal his or her lack of skill or knowledge by resorting to pretentious displays (supposedly a leading authority in his field, he turned out to be nothing but a charlatan). An individual who tries to pass himself or herself off as someone else is an impostor (an impostor who bore a close physical resemblance to the king), although this term can also refer to anyone who assumes a title or profession that is not his or her own. Although all of these deceivers are out to fool people, it is the dissembler who is primarily interested in concealing his or her true motives or evil purpose (he is a dissembler who weaves a tangled web of lies).