snake oil

noun

1

: any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without regard to their medical worth or properties

2

: poppycock, bunkum

Examples of snake oil in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Since the dawn of diet culture, people have fallen for all sorts of snake oil that can be ineffective or downright dangerous. —Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 16 Aug. 2024

Read more Letters to the Editor. $20B housing bond should be voted down The $20 billion housing bond that will be on the Nov. 5 ballot is like snake oil. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 30 July 2024

So why undermine your own coverage, and the environmental concerns around AI proliferation, by parading out a feature that flies directly in the face of both? AI models — or, more accurately, large language models — are snake oil. —Letters To The Editor, Washington Post, 26 July 2024

Shallow people focus instead on style, and on the glib talk of the snake oil salesman. —Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 8 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1917, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

snake oil

noun

: any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without having had the claims of their medical worth or properties substantiated by scientific tests