humbug
A hoax, jest, or prankA hoax, jest, or prank.
» It's all just humbug.
Das ist doch alles nur Humbug.
Meaning
10 senses(countable, slang)A hoax, jest, or prank.
Scherz, Streich, Schabernack
разводкаrazvodka
(countable, slang)A fraud or sham; (uncountable) hypocrisy.
Betrug, Schwindel
надувательствоnaduvatelʹstvo
(countable, slang)A cheat, fraudster, or hypocrite.
Gauner, Halunke, Schwindler
кидалаkidala
(slang, uncountable)Nonsense.
Nonsens, dummes Zeug, fauler Zauber
(UK, countable)A type of hard sweet (candy), usually peppermint flavoured with a striped pattern.
Hartbonbon, Hartkaramelle
(US, countable, slang)Anything complicated, offensive, troublesome, unpleasant or worrying; a misunderstanding, especially if trivial.
(US, countable, slang)A fight.
(US, countable, dated, slang)A gang.
(US, countable, slang)A false arrest on trumped-up charges.
(countable, slang)The piglet of the wild boar.
- communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive
- something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
- pretentious or silly talk or writing
Examples
4 sentencesIt's all just humbug.
deDas ist doch alles nur Humbug.
After that realisation, she swore off Facebook and all of its concomitant humbug.
"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"
de„Pah!“, sagte Scrooge, „Dummes Zeug!“
My profession? Poet and humbug.
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 3
By meaning 5
Origin
Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origiOrigin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century”, or alternatively a derivation from ambage.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: humbugsSynonyms
16 synonyms- communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive:snake oil
- something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage:fraudfraudulenceduperyhoaxput-on
- pretentious or silly talk or writing:baloneyboloneybilgewaterboshdrooltaradiddletarradiddletommyrot
Word family
3 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable