{ } n. (Zool.) The menhaden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank. ] 1. One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack doctor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank . . . is preferred before an able physician. Whitlock. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To cheat by boasting and false pretenses; to gull. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To play the mountebank. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The practices of a mountebank; quackery; boastful and vain pretenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a mountebank or his quackery. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The practices of a mountebank; mountebankery. [ 1913 Webster ]