Definitions for snake oil
snake oil

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. snake oilnoun

   (medicine) any of various liquids sold as medicine (as by a travelling medicine show) but medically worthless

2. humbug, snake oilnoun

   communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. snake oilnoun

   A traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.

2. snake oilnoun

   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.

3. snake oilnoun

   A fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum; panacea.

4. snake oilnoun

   Any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Snake oil

   Snake oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, "snake oil salesman" is a common expression used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. The term comes from the "snake oil" that used to be sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physiological problems. Many 19th-century United States and 18th-century European entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but containing no snake-derived substances whatsoever) as "snake oil liniment", making claims about its efficacy as a panacea. Patent medicines that claimed to be a panacea were extremely common from the 18th century until the 20th, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, alcohol, and opium-based concoctions or elixirs, to be sold at medicine shows as medication or products promoting health.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. snake oil

   Snake oil is a term used to refer to any product, policy, or idea that is promoted as a solution or cure for a problem, but in reality, it has no real efficacy or beneficial value. It originates from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that their products could cure any ailment. Nowadays, it often refers to deceptive marketing or misrepresentation.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Snake oil

   Snake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods or who is himself or herself a fraud, quack, charlatan, and the like. Two main hypotheses for the origin of the term are as follows: The more common theory is that the name originated in the Western regions of the United States and is derived from a topical preparation made from the Chinese Water Snake used by Chinese laborers to treat joint pain. The preparation was promoted in North America by travelling salesmen who often used accomplices in the audience to proclaim the benefits of the preparation. One source, Dr. William S. Haubrich in his book Medical Meanings claims that the name came from the Eastern United States. The Native Americans of New York and Pennsylvania region would rub cuts and scrapes with the petroleum collected from oil seeps that occurred naturally in the area. European settlers observed this habit, and began bottling and selling the substance as a cure-all. The preparation was sold as "Seneca oil" in mid-nineteenth century, after the local tribes. Haubrich claims through mispronunciation this became "Sen-ake-a oil" and eventually "snake oil". Haubrich's claim, however, appears to be a case of folk etymology, as no further evidence appears to exist for this transformation.

Matched Categories

1. • Liquid
   • Medicine
   • Misrepresentation

How to pronounce snake oil?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say snake oil in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of snake oil in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of snake oil in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of snake oil in a Sentence

1. Chief Richard Moore:

   They’re selling their snake oil around the world.

2. Alex Jones:

   What you're talking about is old fashioned snake-oil salesmen.

3. Marc Short:

   I think, unfortunately, the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake-oil salesmen, giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do.

4. President Barack Obama:

   If we don't recognize the progress we've made and how that came about, then we may chase some snake oil and end up having policies that get us back in the swamp.

5. Andrew Lane:

   I mean, there's a whole industry of different things that people give to people with olfactory loss, and mostly it's snake oil kind of stuff, and there’s very kind of skimpy data about it, but there is no medication that we have that restores a sense of smell.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=snake oil
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Snake_Oil
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Oil
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=snake oil