humbug
To play a trick on, to cheat, to swindle, to deceiveTo play a trick on (someone), to cheat, to swindle, to deceive.
Meaning
3 senses(ambitransitive, slang)To play a trick on (someone), to cheat, to swindle, to deceive.
täuschen, hereinlegen, schwindeln
trick or deceive
(US, slang)To fight; to act tough.
(obsolete, slang)To waste time talking.
Examples
4 sentencesTranslations
1 languagesOrigin
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
humbugs, humbugging, humbugged, humbugged| Base form | humbug · to humbug |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | humbugs |
| Present participle | humbugging |
| Past simple | humbugged |
| Past participle | humbugged |
irregular
Word family
5 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.