bill of goods
1
9.3
- noun
- /bɪl əv ɡʊdz/
- Informal
:
engaño
- He warned that the investment opportunity was merely a bill of goods to exploit unsuspecting buyers.
And we are sold a bad bill of goods on those words.
- And we are sold a bad bill of goods on those words.
- We've been sold another bill of goods by people who get rich when we buy pills.
- But if he lies to you and he puts you in a position where he sold you a bill of goods that he doesn't deliver on, like you can't hold it against him.
- And so I, I, I think we have sold ourselves a a very shabby bill of goods which may cost us a lot of human competence in years to come.
- And discernment is learning that we actually got a bad bill of goods, and we're told that there was a black and white playbook, but there's not.
- The bottom line is we have been sold a bill of goods.
- But it does feel like we're being sold a bill of goods.
- If you follow the words, that's where we have been sold a bill of goods where people say, yeah, these are good words, What do you think?
- We don't have to convince you, you know you you know that you've been sold a bill of goods and you're you're coming to prepare for the biggest turn down in world history.
Examples
-
They are selling you a bill of goods!
Blog text (17) -
We've been sold another bill of goods by people who get rich when we buy pills.
-
They were sold a bill of goods by a con man!
Blog text (11) -
Many of them are destined to wake up one day and be very disillusioned, realizing that they have been lied to and sold a bill of goods if everything doesn't turn out as they were promised it would.
Blog text (17) -
After the presentation, I realized I had been sold a bill of goods regarding the product's features.
-
The company promised great results, but I soon found out it was just a bill of goods designed to deceive customers.
Synonyms
577
4.0
Deceiving someone to get money or an unfair advantage
1
9.7
Dishonest words or actions that try to trick people
1
6.3
An illegal plan to get money by tricking people
Nice words that make you expect something that probably will not happen
Antonyms
How Deceptive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal constituents ('bill' = invoice or statement, 'goods' = products) yield a straightforward literal reading (an invoice for products), which does not indicate deception. The idiomatic sense 'a deceptive set of claims' is language-specific and unpredictable from the parts, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Bill of goods later became a way to talk about a trick: sellers could show a neat bill listing fine goods but send poor items instead, so being 'sold a bill of goods' came to mean being 'tricked' or given a 'false offer'.