Mountebank

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.