humbug
IPA: hˈʌmbʌg
noun
- (countable, slang) A hoax, jest, or prank.
- (countable, slang) A fraud or sham; (uncountable) hypocrisy.
- (countable, slang) A cheat, fraudster, or hypocrite.
- (uncountable, slang) Nonsense.
- (countable, Britain) A type of hard sweet (candy), usually peppermint flavoured with a striped pattern.
- (US, countable, slang) Anything complicated, offensive, troublesome, unpleasant or worrying; a misunderstanding, especially if trivial.
- (US, countable, African American Vernacular, slang) A fight.
- (countable, US, African American Vernacular, slang, dated) A gang.
- (countable, US, crime, slang) A false arrest on trumped-up charges.
- (countable, slang, perhaps by extension) The piglet of the wild boar.
verb
- (slang) To play a trick on someone, to cheat, to swindle, to deceive.
- (US, African American Vernacular, slang) To fight; to act tough.
- (slang, obsolete) To waste time talking.
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Examples of "humbug" in Sentences
- A certain cant word called humbug had lately come into vogue.
- "Witch! traitress! infernal ghost! heart of ice!" and in English "humbug!" and in French
- We are forced to walk on what you call humbug; we put it under our feet, but we use it. "
- The derivation of humbug from the Irish uim boig ` false coin 'would provide a perfect partner, but it is, alas, groundless.
- Mrs Harold Smith had commenced with a mind fixed upon avoiding what she called humbug; but this sort of humbug had become so prominent
- In 1824, claims about a Washington widow's miracle cure were celebrated by some, called humbug by others—and sparked a debate among Catholics and Protestants.
- One big change: undermining a custom known across Aboriginal Australia as "humbug" -- harassment, often of the elderly and of women, to share money and goods with their extended families.
- Mrs. Harold Smith had commenced with a mind fixed upon avoiding what she called humbug; but this sort of humbug had become so prominent a part of her usual rhetoric, that she found it very hard to abandon it.
- In her severe cross-examination, the counsel (a very plain, if not an ugly person) observed she had frequently used the term humbug, and desired to know what she meant by it, and to {65} have an explanation; to which she replied,
- a loss to know whether or not Tinah himself gave credit to this whimsical and fabulous account; for though they have credulity sufficient to believe anything, however improbable, they are at the same time so much addicted to that species of wit which we call humbug that it is frequently difficult to discover whether they are in jest or earnest.
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