claptrap

noun

Etymology: Theater slang, c. 1730, from clap + trap, referring to theatrical techniques or gags used to incite applause.

1. Empty verbiage or nonsense.

   “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 all to more emissions.”

2. A device for producing a clapping sound in theaters.
3. A device or trick to gain applause; a humbug.

   “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."”