humbug

Spoto’s work is not fully dismissed, but he’s often thought of as something of an academic humbug.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

As usual, they’re backing their promise with lies and other humbug.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2024

"Raising money and going for valuation every few days is all humbug."

From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2024

If holiday clutter has you more bah humbug than merry, these tips from professional organizers around Seattle might make your life easier before and after the holidays, and well into the new year.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 15, 2023

Yet there are doctors who think that Phineas is a humbug, a fake from the back woods of Vermont.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

“He used these humbugs, as he called them, to create excitement and bring people in,” Wilson says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Joined by his wife Katie, he plunges into another assignment, as he tries to get the "spirit of Christmas" back from the dastardly humbugs.

From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2024

In Poe’s lifetime, a handful of well-connected American scientists advanced plans to build national institutions to distinguish “real working men in the way of science” from charlatans, quacks, and humbugs.

From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2021

Heroic detective, pilot, poet, magician and victor over all bullies and humbugs, animal or human, Freddy remains a model to us all.

From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2020

A reporter crowed, “It has become a settled fact that Burr’s and the Buffalo doctors’ theories are the silliest humbugs of the day.”

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

“Because,” he added, “Although I ain’t been in the city long, I ain’t to be humbugged; it won’t do for you to try to put off your confounded mock turtles on me!”

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2018

P. T. Barnum recorded the fact that the American people delight in being humbugged, and such is still the national mood.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sooner America knows we are not going to be humbugged the better it is.

From Time Magazine Archive

“I think the Captain will find he has humbugged himself this time; I think he’ll have to walk down to the colony after the race,” he said.

From Luck at the Diamond Fields by Dalrymple J. Belgrave

He was a sharp, brisk sort of an old fellow; and I could perceive, at a glance there was no chance of his being humbugged by any made-up story.

From Lost Lenore The Adventures of a Rolling Stone by Charles A. Beach

Stranded in his "useless position" at Transport, Reith seethed while Churchill put together his "rotten" wartime coalition full of "humbugging and sycophantic" ministers.

From Time Magazine Archive

All the members of Parliament used to be skylarking about the city, playing tricks on one another, and humbugging the Castle people.

From Jack Hinton The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

But as for books of travel, Tom, of all the humbugs of a humbugging age, there is nothing can approach them.

From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. II by Charles James Lever

“One-fifty a month, and we can have a straight lease—no humbugging about clauses.”

From Polly in New York by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

I can understand why a man seeks to deceive his physician, because he is humbugging himself; but I can't see why he is not frank to his lawyer!

From Gabriel Conroy by Bert Harte