jiggery-pokery

[jig-uh-ree-poh-kuh-ree]

noun

Chiefly British.

1. trickery, hocus-pocus; fraud; humbug.

2. sly, underhanded action.

3. manipulation.

   After a little jiggery-pokery, the engine started.

jiggery-pokery

/ ˈdʒɪɡərɪˈpəʊkərɪ /

noun

1. informal,  dishonest or deceitful behaviour or business; trickery

Word History and Origins

Origin of jiggery-pokery¹

1890–95; alteration of joukery-pawkery. See jouk, pawky, -ery

Word History and Origins

Origin of jiggery-pokery¹

C19: from Scottish dialect joukery-pawkery

Example Sentences

"It makes extinction sound like something that’s solvable through scientific jiggery-pokery, an error that can be fixed without the arduous, inconvenient lengths that human beings need to go to to prevent extinctions happening."

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In the scathing dissent, Scalia also said the majority decision was “interpretive jiggery-pokery,” a “defense of the indefensible” and “pure applesauce.”

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More plausible accounts of jiggery-pokery came from opposition members of local election commissions, including one in the Moscow district of Ramenki, who reported a suspicious surge in undocumented voting from home.

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Roper said: “He’s got to play the game that’s going about. It’s reflective of the state of politics and the jiggery-pokery that’s been done.”

Read more on The Guardian

But his style was different, beholden to an overarching legal philosophy, and also more flamboyant, scathing, and dependent on eccentric word choices: “argle-bargle,” “jiggery-pokery.”

Read more on The New Yorker