Snake Oil Definition

noun
A worthless preparation fraudulently peddled as a cure for many ills.
American Heritage
A liquid substance with no real medicinal value sold as a cure-all or nostrum, esp. in a medicine show.
Webster's New World
Speech or writing intended to deceive; humbug.
American Heritage

A traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.

Wiktionary

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.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:

Snake Oil Sentence Examples

  • Too many scientists are becoming modern peddlers of snake oil under the insidious influence of the corporate culture.

  • The paper 's editor accused Ms Gorn 's campaign team of acting like " snake-oil salesmen ".

  • Your comment on " web accessibility snake oil salesmen " really hit home for me.

  • I was suspicious of anyone trying to peddle medicine as it is often just snake oil.

  • Normally, this kind of hype is enough to get a healthy skeptic's snake-oil sensors tingling, but in this case the claims appear to be legitimate.

More Sentences

Related Articles

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to snake oil using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

SSNSNA

Words Ending With

LILOIL

Unscrambles

snake oil

Words Starting With S and Ending With L

Starts With S & Ends With LStarts With SN & Ends With LStarts With S & Ends With IL

Word Length

9 Letter Words9 Letter Words Starting With S9 Letter Words Ending With L