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View synonyms for bunkum

bunkum

[ buhng-kuhm ]

noun

  1. insincere speechmaking by a politician intended merely to please local constituents.
  2. insincere talk; claptrap; humbug.


bunkum

/ ˈbʌŋkəm /

noun

  1. empty talk; nonsense
  2. empty or insincere speechmaking by a politician to please voters or gain publicity


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Word History and Origins

Origin of bunkum1

An Americansim dating back to 1815–20; after a speech in the16th Congress (1819–21), by F. Walker, who said he was bound to speak for Buncombe (a county in the district in North Carolina that he represented)

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Word History and Origins

Origin of bunkum1

C19: after Buncombe , a county in North Carolina, alluded to in an inane speech by its Congressional representative Felix Walker (about 1820)

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Example Sentences

The move will likely be cheered by public health advocates who have struggled to combat such harmful bunkum online during the devastating pandemic.

A grain—requiring to be picked out with a pin and microscope—of truth, with a bushel of bunkum or cant.

He became the voice of the British Empire, and the man who had always ridiculed Americans for bunkum oratory, out-screamed us all.

But I'm blowed if this bunkum don't make me inclined to turn Radical rat.

And I might have known all the time that it was so much bunkum, just a yarn to get out of my hands.

Their magic of the first kind is compounded of pure bunkum and fraud.

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