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snake oil

A fraudulent, ineffective potion or nostrum; panacea.
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Submitted on September 01, 2009

Additional definitions for 'snake oil':

snake oilA 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.
snake oilAny product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
snake oilSnake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.
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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to snake oil

oil upsnake in the grassPour Oil on Troubled Watersoil colouroil burneroil trashoil burnerpour oil on troubled watersSnake in the Grassoil paintingthe squeaky wheel gets the grease/oilmad as a cut snakemad as a cut snakesnake eyes

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