hocus

American  

[hoh-kuhs] / ˈhoʊ kəs /

verb (used with object)

hocused, hocusing, hocussed, hocussing

1. to play a trick on; hoax; cheat.

2. to stupefy with drugged liquor.

3. to drug (liquor).

---

hocus British  

/ ˈhəʊkəs /

verb

1. to take in; trick

2. to stupefy, esp with a drug

3. to add a drug to (a drink)

---

Etymology

Origin of hocus

First recorded in 1665–75; short for hocus-pocus

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hocus hocused hocussed hocussing

“What he did for those 20 hours is hocus pocus,” Richards said in urging jurors to reject consideration of the image.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2021

Imam Hasan, who is based at the Al-Emaan Centre in Bromley, Kent, said ruqya is misunderstood and rejected myths of "spells, magic wands or hocus pocus" being involved.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2021

It will be revealed that Bran is both Brandon the Wall Builder and the Night King by some time travel Three-Eyed Raven hocus pocus.

From The Guardian ● May 1, 2019

“We’ve always been interested in how music impacts the mentally ill, but some scientists shun the idea of researching this because it’s been viewed as hocus pocus,” he said.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 6, 2018

A deed that would have taken her five minutes to do she passed on to the next available creature, even if it required twenty minutes' planning to hocus him into accepting it.

From The Prisoner by Brown, Alice

Realizing this almost gave my mind stage fright, but I was too fagged to be hocused by self-consciousness.

From The Big Time by Leiber, Fritz

He is Moore hocused for the American market.

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 Volume 23, Number 2 by Various

It must have been working as sweet and steady as ever, all the time it was Inverted, except that, being inside out, it had hocused the direction finders.

From The Big Time by Leiber, Fritz

These rascals had given him hocussed rum, and had got him away, probably tied to one of the horses.

From The Missing Link by Dyson, Edward

Ill-lodged, ill-fed, ill-used, hocussed, entrapped, anticipated, cleaned out. 

From The Uncommercial Traveller by Dickens, Charles

"But you see we are not quite such fools as we look; and we have heard of such a thing, in our time, as hocussed wine."

From A Rogue's Life by Collins, Wilkie

I hocussed the butler and waited with the patients.

From The Wonder by Beresford, J. D. (John Davys)

Then we’ve all been hocussed, and Jarette’s got the upper hand again?”

From Sail Ho! A Boy at Sea by Fenn, George Manville

The fortune-tellers have been consulted about them; dreamers have dreamed the winners; and many an underhand attempt, sometimes including the hocussing of men or horses, has been made to corrupt the sport.

From Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul by Tucker, T. G. (Thomas George)

Then he became absorbed in steering, and sternly rejected all further consideration of his gift; he would have neither hand nor part in hocussing French agriculturalists posing as mariners.

From The Admirable Tinker Child of the World by Jepson, Edgar

There is no chance of hocussing a horse, or laming him, or bribing a stable boy, or squaring a jockey.

From Hard Pressed by White, Fred M. (Fred Merrick)

"The operation—combining equal parts of hocussing, overcharging, and direct robbery—and facetiously christened by bush landlords `lambing down.'"

From Austral English A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia by Morris, Edward Ellis

The Doctor espoused the moral hocussing system, and Feargus took up the bludgeon for physical force.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 by Various