claptrap

Empty verbiage or nonsense.countableuncountable

• Klein diagnoses impressively what hasn’t worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of the international summit meetings that produce sirocco-quality hot air, and nonbinding agreements that bind us

A device for producing a clapping sound in theaters.countablehistoricaluncountable

A device or trick to gain applause; a humbug.countableuncountable

• There had been a suggestion that the child should be with her [while she answers the door], but the mother herself had rejected this. "It would be stagey," she had said, "and clap-trap. There is nothing I hate so much as that."