Phony vs Quack - What's the difference?
phony | quack |
Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.
A person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own.
A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold.
To make a noise like a duck.
A fraudulent healer or incompetent professional, especially a doctor of medicine; an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine.
* 1662 : Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to Late Times, Vol. II , by ‘the most Eminent Wits’
* 1720 : William Derham, Physico-theology
* 1843 , '', book 2, ch. 8, ''The Electon
A charlatan.
Carlyle
(slang) A doctor.
To practice or commit quackery.
(obsolete) To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast.
* Hudibras
falsely presented as having medicinal powers.
As adjectives the difference between phony and quack
is that phony is fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance while quack is falsely presented as having medicinal powers.As nouns the difference between phony and quack
is that phony is a person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own while quack is the sound made by a duck or quack can be a fraudulent healer or incompetent professional, especially a doctor of medicine; an impostor who claims to have qualifications to practice medicine.As a verb quack is
to make a noise like a duck or quack can be to practice or commit quackery.phony
English
Alternative forms
* phoneyAdjective
(er)- A good jeweler should be able to tell a real stone from a phony one.
Synonyms
* (fraudulent) bogus, counterfeit, fake * See alsoAntonyms
* authentic * genuineDerived terms
* phoniness * phoneynessNoun
(phonies)- He claims to be a doctor, but he's nothing but a fast-talking phony .
- He's such a phony , he doesn't believe half of what he says.
Synonyms
* (faker) dissembler, pretender, fake, fakerDerived terms
* phony up, phoney up * Phony War, Phoney Warquack
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) *.Verb
(en verb)- The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked .
- Do you hear the ducks quack ?
Derived terms
*References
Etymology 2
(wikipedia quack) c 1630, shortening of quacksalver, from (etyl)Noun
(en noun)- That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack !
- Polly (to security guard, referring to Dr. Feingarten): Are you going to let that shyster in there?
- Dr. Feingarten': I could sue you, Polly. A shyster is a disreputable lawyer. I'm a ' quack .
- - From the motion picture
- Tis hard to say, how much these Arse-wormes do urge us, We now need no Quack but these Jacks for to purge us, [...]
- After ?ome Months, the Quack gets privately to Town, [...]
- ‘if we are ourselves valets, there shall ‘exist no hero for us; we shall not know the hero when we see him;’ - we shall take the quack for a hero; and cry, audibly through all ballot-boxes and machinery whatsoever, Thou art he; be thou King over us!
- Quacks political; quacks scientific, academical.
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* (l)Verb
(en verb)- To quack of universal cures.
Adjective
(-)- Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!