Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pertaining to a charlatan doctor or his medicines; occas. ext. to other professions.

1663		J. Wilson Cheats II i: They’re a company of quacking fools [...] Hang this foisting – I’ll trust ne’er a doctor of them all.
1675		Head Nugae Venales 305: Quacking Doctors and Hangmen, who kill without being called in question.
1702		J. Floyer Essay to Prove Cold Bathing 321: I believe Cold Bathing can never be made a Quack Medicine.
1709		‘Poem on the Taking of St. Mary’s’ Collection of Eng. Poetry II (1716) 1: One that himself knew how to Rule, As a Quack Doctor does his Fool.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 166: Quacking Physicians shou’d / Give Money freely.
1756		C. Lucas Essay on Waters Pt 3 138: A common quack-bill; in which some disguised drugg [...] is most pompously extolled.
1787		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peter’s Prophecy’ Works (1794) II 130: To cure, like all quack med’cines, all complaints!
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 135: I wonder, among all our quack pills and drops, we haven’t a cure for it.
1836		Marryat Mr Midshipman Easy II 279: He had taken a peculiar fancy to a quack medicine, called Enouy’s Universal Medicine for all Mankind.
1853		T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 172: The Captain is fonder of quack medicines than Babboon, the Frenchman.
1865		‘Artemus Ward’ Among the Mormons in Complete Works 1865) (1922) 275: The Goddess hasn’t bin very well durin’ the past few years, and the num’ris quack doctors she called in didn’t help her any.
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 397: The mountebank puffs his quack pills with texts from the Bible.
1871		G.A. Brine letter July 3 in Ribton-Turner (1887) n.p.: I have been in the employ (for two years together) of manslaughtering quack doctors – four different ones.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 40: ‘Is this a real discovery, or merely a quack nostrum?’ I ventured to inquire.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 63: Quack Nostrum, spurious medicine.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘A Picturesque Ceremony’ Naval Occasions 240: I remember – what they call in the quack advertisements ‘That Sickish Feeling!’.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 196: Instead of his sticking to decent regular practice, you’ll be hearing of his opening a quack sanitorium.
1936		Auden & Isherwood Ascent of F6 I i: Virtue. Knowledge. We have heard these words before; and we shall hear them again – during the nursery luncheon, on the prize-giving afternoon, in the quack advertisement.
1942		E. Cross Tailor and Ansty 193: He was what they call in this country a quack doctor. This is a doctor who has all the old tradional learning.
1959		J. Osborne World of Paul Slickey Act II: There is far too much nonsense talked in this quack kind of psychology.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 212: ‘New York is blessed with more quack pschologists and sociologists than the rest of the world combined’.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 183: Irish drama critics were in those days [...] a breed of quack psychoanalysts.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ Destination: Morgue! (2004) 269: My buddy was a quack herb doc.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 89: She’s in hock to half the quack doctors [...] on the west side.