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

And that young John would ride clean to town just to say 'How' to that ole hocus.

From Jim Waring of Sonora-Town Tang of Life by Henry Herbert Knibbs

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

He is Moore hocused for the American market.

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

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

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 Sir Richard Francis Burton

I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed.

From Escape, and Other Essays by Arthur Christopher Benson

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 Anthony Trollope

"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 Wilkie Collins

Since the time when Boer spies hocussed him on guard—you remember that lovely affair?—he's registered a vow to impress me with his gallantry and devotion, or die in the attempt.

From The Dop Doctor by Richard Dehan

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 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

"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

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

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

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