Medical practice and advice based on observation and experience in ignorance of scientific findings.

synonym: empiricism.

Roget 699: unskillfulness etc. adj.; want of skill etc. 698; incompetence, incompentency^†; inability, infelicity, indexterity^†, inexperience; disqualification, unproficiency^†; quackery.    folly, stupidity etc. 499; indiscretion etc. (rashness) 863; thoughtlessness etc. (inattention) 458 (neglect) 460; sabotage.    mismanagement, misconduct; impolicy^†; maladministration; misrule, misgovernment, misapplication, misdirection, misfeasance; petticoat government.    absence of rule, rule of thumb; bungling etc. v.; failure etc. 732; screw loose: too many cooks.    blunder etc. (mistake) 495; etourderie gaucherie [Fr.], act of folly, balourdise^†; botch, botchery^†; bad job, sad work.    sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild-goose chase.    bungler etc. 701; fool etc. 501.    ... show more

Dutch: kwakzalverij

The dishonesty of a charlatan.

synonym: charlatanism.

Roget 544: falsehood, falseness; falsity, falsification; deception etc. 545; untruth etc. 546; guile; lying etc. 454; untruth etc. 546; guile; lying etc. v.. misrepresentation; mendacity, perjury, false swearing; forgery, invention, fabrication; subreption^†; covin^†.    perversion of truth, suppression of truth; suppressio veri [Lat.]; perversion, distortion, false coloring; exaggeration etc. 549; prevarication, equivocation, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud; suggestio falsi etc. (lie) 546 [Lat.]; mystification etc. (concealment) 528; simulation etc. (imitation) 19; dissimulation, dissembling; deceit; blague^†.    sham; pretense, pretending, malingering.    lip homage, lip service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere show, mere outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, organized hypocrisy;" crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness^†, quackery; charlatanism^†, charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum^†, bumcombe, flam; bam [Slang], flimflam, cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy etc. (bad faith) 940; il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti [It].    unfairness etc. (dishonesty) 940; artfulness etc. (cunning) 702; misstatement etc. (error) 495.    ... 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

Dutch: kwakzalverij