HUMBUG

fraud, fraudulence, dupery, hoax, humbug, put-on

(noun) something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

humbug, snake oil

(noun) communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive

baloney, boloney, bilgewater, bosh, drool, humbug, taradiddle, tarradiddle, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle

(noun) pretentious or silly talk or writing

humbug

(verb) trick or deceive

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

humbug (countable and uncountable, plural humbugs)

(countable, slang) A hoax, jest, or prank.

(countable, uncountable, slang) A fraud or sham (countable); hypocrisy (uncountable).

(countable, slang) A fraudster, cheat, 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.

Interjection

humbug

(slang) Balderdash!, nonsense!, rubbish!

Verb

humbug (third-person singular simple present humbugs, present participle humbugging, simple past and past participle humbugged)

(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.

Usage notes

The spellings humbuging and humbuged exist, but are not nearly so common as humbugging and humbugged.

Source: Wiktionary

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Hum"bug`, n. Etym: [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.

Hum"bug`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humbugged; p. pr. & vb. n. Humbugging.]

Definition: To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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