A: Will you vote for the incumbent governor later this year? B: No. The governor promised to lower taxes, but it was the same old snake oil. Note: This idiom comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailments. Therefore, snake oil refers to “deceptive talk or actions, hooey, bunkum.” A “snake oil salesman” is a fraud. |