bill of goods

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

bill of goods (plural bills of goods)

1. (business) A collection of items purchased or offered for sale.
   • 1884, Horatio Alger, chapter 18, in Do and Dare:

     "This morning," he said, "I foolishly gave Eben a hundred dollars, and sent him to Boston to pay for a bill of goods which I recently bought of a wholesale house on Milk Street."

2. (idiomatic) A set of misleading or deceptive claims; misinformation.
   • 1956 August 27, “Harry's Bitter Week”, in Time:

     Truman bought quite a bill of goods from the old cronies who had flocked to Harriman.

• (misinformation): bullshit

• sell someone a bill of goods