sold a bill of goods
Meaning
To be deceived or tricked into believing a false story or accepting something of little value.
Origin
In the bustling marketplaces and burgeoning consumer culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a "bill of goods" was quite literally an invoice, a detailed list of items purchased or to be delivered. The phrase "sold a bill of goods" conjures the image of a smooth-talking swindler, a master of misdirection, who could convince an unsuspecting customer to pay good money for a formal receipt of merchandise that was either wildly exaggerated in value, completely fictitious, or utterly worthless. It implied the entire transaction was a cleverly orchestrated deception, where the very promise of the goods, meticulously documented on the bill, was nothing but a lie. The buyer walked away with nothing but a worthless piece of paper and a lighter wallet, having been thoroughly convinced by the charlatan's elaborate spiel.
Examples
- I was sold a bill of goods when they told me the vintage car had low mileage; the odometer had clearly been tampered with.
- The politician really sold us a bill of goods with all those promises, and now none of them have come true.