Meaning of snake oil | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum; panacea.
   idiomatic, uncountable
2. A traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.
   uncountable
3. A type of 19th-century patent medicine sold in the United States that claimed to contain snake fat, supposedly a Native American remedy for various ailments.
   uncountable
4. Any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
   idiomatic, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“As for the IRP, Secretary of State Grant Shapps continues to peddle snake oil, smoke⟳ and mirrors. His reaction to near-universal IRP condemnation from politicians, local and national media, and all but a few rail specialists was to dismiss the lot of us (in the condescending and patronising tone we have⟳ now come⟳ to expect⟳) as "critics and naysayers".”

CEFR level