Word.ws English Dictionary

quacksalver

Syllables: quack·sal·ver/ˈkwæksælvə/US/ˈkwæksælvɚ/

quacksalver noun: one falsely claiming to possess medical or other skills, especially one who dispenses potions, ointments, etc., supposedly having curative powers; a quack.

quacksalver: one falsely claiming to possess medical or other skills, especially one who dispenses potions,...
Image: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/54/b4/481d34, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

quacksalver (plural quacksalvers)

  1. (archaic) One falsely claiming to possess medical or other skills, especially one who dispenses potions, ointments, etc., supposedly having curative powers; a quack.
    • [F]ree me from thoſe outward encumbrances of cares that over-whelme mee, and let this paraliticke quackſalver fill ten thouſand tunnes with ſcelerata ſinapis, ſhrewiſh ſnappiſh muſtard, as Plautus calls it, […]1596, Thomas Nashe, Haue vvith You to Saffron-vvalden. Or, Gabriell Harueys Hunt is vp: Containing a Full Answere to the Eldest Sonne of the Halter-maker. Or, Nashe His Confutation of the Sinfull...
    • Wid[ow]. Why, Man's Life is but a Flower, Mr. Jolly, and the Flower withers, and Man withers, as Mr. Knock-down obſerv'd laſt Sabbath-day at Evening Exerciſe: But, Neighbour, you're paſt the Flower, you've grown old as well as I— / Jol[ly]. I'the very Flower; that damn'd Quack-ſalver—1710, Abraham Cowley, “Cutter of Coleman-Street”, in The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley: In Two Volumes. Consisting of Those which were Formerly Printed; and Those which He Design’d for the Press...
    Synonyms:
    medicaster, quack

quacksalver meaning in Malayalam

quacksalver in Malayalam

quacksalver
ദിവ്യൻ divyaṉ

Synonyms of quacksalver

Forms of quacksalver

pluralquacksalvers
alternative formquack-salver

Origin of quacksalver

From Dutch quacksalver (“a hawker of salve”) (now spelt kwakzalver), derived from Middle Dutch quacsalven (noun or verb), from kwaken (“to boast, to brag; to croak”) + salve (“ointment, salve”) (modern Dutch zalf) + -er (agent noun suffix).

Words formed from quacksalver

Questions about quacksalver

What does quacksalver mean?
Quacksalver means one falsely claiming to possess medical or other skills, especially one who dispenses potions, ointments, etc., supposedly having curative powers; a quack.
What is quacksalver in Malayalam?
Quacksalver in Malayalam is ദിവ്യൻ (divyaṉ). See Quacksalver meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is quacksalver?
Quacksalver is a noun.
How do you pronounce quacksalver?
Quacksalver is pronounced /ˈkwæksælvə/ (UK).
What is the plural of quacksalver?
The plural of quacksalver is quacksalvers.

Words near quacksalver in the dictionary

  1. quacklike
  2. quackling
  3. quackmire
  4. quackmires
  5. quacks
  6. quacksalver
  7. quacksalveries
  8. quacksalvers
  9. quacksalvery
  10. quacksalving
  11. quackster

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quacksalver (page history and authors); ദിവ്യൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-quacksalver.wav.

Cite this entry: “quacksalver.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quacksalver. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.