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).

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hocus British  

/ ˈhəʊkəs /

verb

1. to take in; trick

2. to stupefy, esp with a drug

3. to add a drug to (a drink)

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Etymology

Origin of hocus

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

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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

I don’t speak in delphic tongues or offer holy absolution or perform shamanic hocus pocus; I really don’t do much of anything but sit there, listen and try to tell the truth.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2018

It knows it’s always being upstaged by the hocus pocus of its own medium.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 8, 2016

Or you could say it was an unintended pulling back of the curtain on all the hocus pocus that goes into healthcare costs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2016

"Cheer up, man," he cried; "you've got off light, for there's no a scratch on your lily-white cheek, and the blood-letting from the nose will clear out the dregs of Moro's hocus."

From Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan

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

From The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

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 Fritz Leiber

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

From The Uncommercial Traveller by Charles Dickens

"The lump of stuff you left here hocussed one—it was a toss-up—luck was on my side—that one carried them—slept like death—long while hunting—found them under his pillow at last."

From It Is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade

“Here, you’d better do the throwing, or you’ll be swearing I’ve hocussed the coin,” said Dawes, with a dry smile.

From The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley by Bertram Mitford

I hocussed the butler and waited with the patients.

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

No, out of this glass of mine, if you please, just to show that it isn't hocussed.

From The White Blackbird by Hudson Douglas

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

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

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

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 T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker

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 Edgar Jepson

"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 Edward Ellis Morris

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