A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes.

synonym: mountebank.

Roget 493: ignoramus, dunce; wooden spoon; no scholar.    [insulting terms for ignorant person:] (imbecility) 499 (folly) 501 moron, imbecile, idiot; fool, jerk, nincompoop, asshole [Vulg.].    [person with superficial knowledge] dilettante, sciolist^†, smatterer, dabbler, half scholar; charlatan; wiseacre.    greenhorn, amateur etc. (dupe) 547; novice, tyro etc. (learner) 541; numskull.    lubber etc. (bungler) 701; fool etc. 501; pedant etc. 492.    ... show more

Roget 548: deceiver etc. (deceive) etc. 545; dissembler, hypocrite; sophist, Pharisee, Jesuit, Mawworm^†, Pecksniff, Joseph Surface, Tartufe^†, Janus; serpent, snake in the grass, cockatrice, Judas, wolf in sheep's clothing; jilt; shuffler^†, stool pigeon.    liar etc. (lie) etc. 544; story-teller, perjurer, false witness, menteur a triple etage [Fr.], Scapin^†; bunko steerer [U.S.], carpetbagger [U.S.], capper [U.S.], faker, fraud, four flusher [Slang], horse coper^†, ringer [Slang], spieler^†, straw bidder [U.S.].    imposter, pretender, soi-disant [Fr.], humbug; adventurer; Cagliostro, Fernam Mendez Pinto; ass in lion's skin etc. (bungler) 701; actor etc. (stage player) 599.    quack, charlatan, mountebank, saltimbanco^†, saltimbanque^†, empiric, quacksalver, medicaster^†, Rosicrucian, gypsy; man of straw.    conjuror, juggler, trickster, prestidigitator, jockey; crimp, decoy, decoy duck; rogue, knave, cheat; swindler etc. (thief) 792; jobber.    ... show more

Roget 844: humorist, wag, wit, reparteeist^†, epigrammatist, punster; bel esprit, life of the party; wit-snapper, wit-cracker, wit-worm; joker, jester, Joe Miller^†, drole de corps^†, gaillard^†, spark; bon diable [Fr.]; practical joker.    buffoon, farceur [Fr.], merry-andrew, mime, tumbler, acrobat, mountebank, charlatan, posturemaster^†, harlequin, punch, pulcinella^†, scaramouch^†, clown; wearer of the cap and bells, wearer of the motley; motley fool; pantaloon, gypsy; jack-pudding, jack in the green, jack a dandy; wiseacre, wise guy, smartass [Coll.]; fool etc. 501.    zany, madcap; pickle-herring, witling^†, caricaturist, grimacier^†; persifleur^†.    ... show more

Roget 855: affectation; affectedness etc. adj.; acting a part etc. v.; pretense etc. (falsehood) 544, (ostentation) 882; boasting etc. 884.    charlatanism, quackery, shallow profundity; pretension, airs, pedantry, purism, precisianism, euphuism; teratology etc. (altiloquence) 577.    mannerism, simagree, grimace.    conceit, foppery, dandyism, man millinery, coxcombry, puppyism.    stiffness, formality, buckram; prudery, demureness, coquetry, mock modesty, minauderie, sentimentalism; mauvais honte, false shame.    affector, performer, actor; pedant, pedagogue, doctrinaire, purist, euphuist, mannerist; grimacier; lump of affectation, precieuse ridicule [Fr.], bas bleu [Fr.], blue stocking, poetaster; prig; charlatan etc. (deceiver) 548; petit maitre etc. (fop) 854; flatterer etc. 935; coquette, prude, puritan.    ... show more

Roget 884: boasting etc. v.; boast, vaunt, crake^†; pretense, pretensions; puff, puffery; flourish, fanfaronade^†; gasconade; blague^†, bluff, gas [Slang]; highfalutin, highfaluting^†; hot air, spread-eagleism [U.S.]; brag, braggardism^†; bravado, bunkum, buncombe; jactitation^†, jactancy^†; bounce; venditation^†, vaporing, rodomontade, bombast, fine talking, tall talk, magniloquence, teratology^†, heroics; Chauvinism; exaggeration etc. 549.    vanity etc. 880; vox et praeterea nihil [Lat.]; much cry and little wool, brutum fulmen [Lat.].    exultation; gloriation^†, glorification; flourish of trumpets; triumph etc. 883.    boaster; braggart, braggadocio; Gascon [Fr.], fanfaron^†, pretender, soi-disant [Fr.]; blower [U.S.], bluffer, Foxy Quiller^†; blusterer etc. 887; charlatan, jack-pudding, trumpeter; puppy etc. (fop) 854.    ... show more

Dutch: charlatan, kwakzalver, nar
Polish: szarlatan