Humbug \Hum"bug`\, n. [Prob. fr. hum to impose on, deceive + bug
   a frightful object.]
   1. An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in
      order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish
      fellow; an impostor. --Sir J. Stephen.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	Humbug \Hum"bug`\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humbugged; p. pr. & vb.
   n. Humbugging.]
   To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.
   [1913 Webster]

	

	humbug
     n 1: pretentious or silly talk or writing [syn: baloney, boloney,
           bilgewater, bosh, drool, taradiddle, tarradiddle,
           tommyrot, tosh, twaddle]
     2: communication (writen or spoken) intended to deceive [syn: snake
        oil]
     3: something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended
        to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery,
         hoax, put-on]
     v : trick or deceive
     [also: humbugging, humbugged]

	

	192 Moby Thesaurus words for "humbug":
   absurdity, acting, affectation, amphigory, appearance,
   attitudinizing, babble, babblement, balderdash, balls, baloney,
   bamboozle, beguile, betray, bibble-babble, blabber, blague,
   blagueur, blather, blatherskite, bluff, bluffer, bluffing, bombast,
   bosh, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, cajole, charlatan,
   charlatanism, charlatanry, cheat on, cheating, circumvent,
   claptrap, color, coloring, conjure, crap, deceive, deception,
   delude, delusion, diddle, disguise, dissemblance, dissembling,
   dissimulation, double-cross, double-talk, drivel, drool, dupe,
   eyewash, facade, face, fake, fakement, faker, fakery, faking,
   false air, false front, false show, falsity, feigning, feint,
   fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, flam, flapdoodle, flimflam, flummery,
   folderol, forestall, four-flushing, fourflusher, fraud, front,
   fudge, fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, get around, gibber,
   gibberish, gibble-gabble, gilt, gloss, gobbledygook, gull, gyp,
   hoax, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hoke, hokum, hooey, hornswaggle,
   humbuggery, impersonator, impostor, imposture, jabber, jargon,
   jiggery-pokery, juggle, let down, malarkey, malingerer, masquerade,
   meretriciousness, mislead, mock, moonshine, mountebank,
   mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, ostentation,
   outmaneuver, outreach, outsmart, outward show, outwit, overreach,
   pack of nonsense, palaver, phony, piffle, pigeon, play one false,
   playacting, pose, poser, poseur, posing, posture, prate, prattle,
   pretender, pretense, pretension, pretext, put something over,
   quack, quackery, quackishness, quackism, quacksalver, quackster,
   rant, representation, rigamarole, rigmarole, ringer, rip-off,
   rodomontade, rot, rubbish, saltimbanco, seeming, sell, semblance,
   sham, shammer, show, simulacrum, simulation, skimble-skamble, snow,
   speciousness, spoof, string along, stuff and nonsense,
   stultiloquence, take in, trash, trick, trumpery, twaddle, twattle,
   twiddle-twaddle, two-time, vaporing, varnish, waffling,
   window dressing