snake-oil

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.18 in modern English

Scrabble Score

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Meaning

verb

To dupe or con.

Informal; Transitive verb

"And this is particularly so for many of our women students who have been hustled and snake-oiled to deny the validity of their intellects."
"Before she had a chance to deal with her hangover, he was on the phone snake-oiling her into the first of what would be many ill-fated fraud cases."

From snake oil.

snake-oils (present, singular) snake-oiling (participle, present) snake-oiled (participle, past) snake-oiled (past)

How to pronounce snake-oil

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