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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

snake oil en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, uncountable) A fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum; panacea.
  2. (uncountable) A traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.
  3. (uncountable) A type of 19th-century patent medicine sold in the United States that claimed to contain snake fat, supposedly a Native American remedy for various ailments.
  4. (idiomatic, uncountable) Any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
    • As for the IRP, Secretary of State Grant Shapps continues to peddle snake oil, smoke and mirrors. His reaction to near-universal IRP condemnation from politicians, local and national media, and all but a few rail specialists was to dismiss the lot of us (in the condescending and patronising tone we have now come to expect) as "critics and naysayers". 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

Deriveds

snake oil salesman

Relateds

quackery

Translations (9)

pl olej z węża (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum) · pt pó de perlimpimpim (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum) · de Quacksalberprodukt (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum) · fi käärmeöljy (traditional Chinese medicine) · fr poudre de perlimpinpin (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum) · pl olej z węża (traditional Chinese medicine) · es aceite serpentino (traditional Chinese medicine) · da kvaksalverprodukt (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum) · fi huijauslääke (fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum)