hocus
Americanverb (used with object)
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to play a trick on; hoax; cheat.
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to stupefy with drugged liquor.
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to drug (liquor).
verb
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to take in; trick
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to stupefy, esp with a drug
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to add a drug to (a drink)
Etymology
Origin of hocus
First recorded in 1665–75; short for hocus-pocus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“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
“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
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 Buchan, John
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
I'm the man as hocussed you that there arternoon, down Westminster way.
From M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." by Whyte-Melville, G.J.
“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 Mitford, Bertram
I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed.
From Escape, and Other Essays by Benson, Arthur Christopher
But if he allows hisself to be hocussed in that way, I don't know but what I shall be ashamed.
From Orley Farm by Trollope, Anthony
When Ghanim saw her, he knew that some one had played her false and hocussed her; so he pulled her out of the chest and laid her on the ground with her face upwards.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
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 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 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)
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)
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
