🗓️ Idiom: A Snake Oil Salesman (n)
💬 Meaning
- A person who sells fake products or makes false promises to gain money.
- Someone who tricks others by pretending to offer something valuable or effective.
🧠 Example Sentences
- Be careful, that influencer promoting the miracle cure sounds like a snake oil salesman.
- Some shady consultants are just snake oil salesmen with no real value.
- The company was accused of being run by snake oil salesmen after several complaints.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from 1800s America, when traveling salesmen sold “snake oil” as a cure for many illnesses. Most of these products didn’t work, and the sellers often disappeared after making money. Today, the phrase is used for dishonest people who make false claims to sell something.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Don’t trust that consultant. He’s just __________ trying to sell useless tools.
Answer
a snake oil salesman
2. Choose the correct meaning of “a snake oil salesman”:
A) A person who sells health drinks
B) A person who sells fake or useless products
C) A person who sells oil for machines
Answer
B) A person who sells fake or useless products
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“He made big promises about his services, but they turned out to be false.” → Change the sentence using: a snake oil salesman
Answer
He turned out to be a snake oil salesman.
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