hokey

[ hoh-kee ]

/ ˈhoʊ ki /

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adjective, hok·i·er, hok·i·est.

overly sentimental; mawkish: Two glasses of wine and he gets unbearably hokey; it's hard to believe he's a highly paid executive!

obviously contrived, especially to win popular appeal or support; phony: The hokey stories of his impoverished childhood always surface at election time.

OTHER WORDS FOR hokey

1 corny, maudlin, melodramatic, cloying, goopy, mushy.

2 fake, false, artificial, counterfeit, sham, spurious.

See synonyms for hokey on Thesaurus.com

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On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.

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Origin of hokey

First recorded in 1945–50; hok(um) + -y¹

OTHER WORDS FROM hokey

hok·ey·ness, hok·i·ness, noun

Words nearby hokey

hoity-toity, Hojo, hoka, Hokan, hoke, hokey, hokey cokey, hokey-pokey, hoki, Hokinson, Hokkaido

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use hokey in a sentence

The founder’s wealth is mostly vested in his creation, but over the past year, he has also been gifted so-called “petcoins” as part of a hokey marketing stunt.
Crypto Mogul Vitalik Buterin’s $1B Donation of ‘Petcoins’ to Charity Backfires|Tarpley Hitt|May 13, 2021|The Daily Beast
I know it sounds hokey, but if you … I know maybe at times you believe that working really hard and doing well may not get you there, but I think today it should.
Getting More Bang for His Bucks: Marc Lasry Sources the Secrets of His Success|Isabelle Lee|May 5, 2021|Ozy
There’s a hokey down-home humor of Cal sputtering at his horse, and his hapless deputy.
‘Raft of Stars’ takes a cue from Hemingway, then puts a less macho spin on the adventure tale|Mark Athitakis|April 8, 2021|Washington Post
There are all sorts of hokey things that allow people to use their PR budgets to buy virtue but aren’t really having the impact.
Bill Gates: Rich nations should shift entirely to synthetic beef|James Temple|February 15, 2021|MIT Technology Review

More hokey than the inspired objects recalled by the curators: A frumpy teddy bear.
We All Have a Rosebud in Our Pasts|Sam Roberts|October 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But could something quite sensible lie behind this hokey-sounding separation cleanse?
Seriously Gwyneth? WTF Is ‘Conscious Uncoupling’?|Tim Teeman|March 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
By now, everyone knows how to do the Republican presidential hokey pokey: You put your right foot in.
Chris Christie’s Delicate Social Issues Dance|Michelle Cottle|August 21, 2013|DAILY BEAST
There was the lifeless and hokey Management ($934,000 box office) and Love Happens ($22 million).
Jennifer Aniston’s New Movie Sucks. What’s She Doing Wrong?|Kevin Fallon|August 7, 2013|DAILY BEAST
She jumped up and down and did the hokey pokey and shouted to the rooftops from it.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s Tearful Last ‘The View,’ and Why We’ll Miss Her|Kevin Fallon|July 10, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Here is the poorer Italian colony; organ-grinders, ice-cream-barrow-men, "hokey-pokey" sellers, and their like.
Highways and Byways in London|Mrs. E. T. Cook.
They both laughed, feeling like mischievous children who had played a successful trick on the hokey-pokey man.
The Lion and The Mouse|Charles Klein
Hokey Pokey stepped lightly forward, and dropped the round loaf down the great red throat.
The Pig Brother and Other Fables and Stories|Laura E. Richards
"Hokey, dokey," said Ishie and crawled out of the narrow aperture with the agility of a monkey.
Where I Wasn't Going|Walt Richmond
He had scarcely opened the door when he started back in surprise, exclaiming: "By hokey, if there isn't a basket on the steps!"
Jack's Ward|Horatio Alger, Jr.

British Dictionary definitions for hokey

hokey

/ (ˈhəʊkɪ) /

adjective slang, mainly US and Canadian

corny; sentimental

contrived; phoney

Word Origin for hokey

C20: from hokum

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

hokey

OTHER WORDS FOR hokey

Origin of hokey

OTHER WORDS FROM hokey

Words nearby hokey

Words related to hokey

How to use hokey in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for hokey

Word Origin for hokey