Mount"e*bank, v. t. To cheat by
boasting and false pretenses; to gull. [R.] Shak.
Mount"e*bank (?), 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.
Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a
mountebank . . . is preferred before an able
physician.
Whitlock.
2. Any boastful or false pretender; a
charlatan; a quack.
Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks
will undertake.
Arbuthnot.Mount"e*bank, v. i. To play the
mountebank.