v. [f. Barnum, name of a pushing American show-proprietor + -IZE.] To exhibit with a lavish display of puffing advertisements. Barnumism, exaggerated advertising or display, boastful ‘tall talk.’
1851. W. B. Hodgson, in Life, vi. (1883), 87. Barnumised and puffed as Napoleon has been, he is not popular.
1852. Blackw. Mag., LXXII. 307. Barnumizing the prodigy through Europe.
1862. Daily Tel., 20 Oct., 4/4. It is Barnumism that prompts clergymen to tell their flocks that they must fight the Confederates till Hell freezes, and then fight them on the ice.
