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ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Hocus

/ˈhəʊkəs/ · verb

Meaning

To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat..

Definitions by Sense

  1. To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.
  2. (obsolete) To stupefy (someone) with drugged liquor (especially in order to steal from them).
  3. (obsolete) To drug (liquor).
  4. (obsolete) To adulterate (food).
  5. (obsolete) A magician, illusionist, one who practises sleight of hand.
  6. (obsolete) One who cheats or deceives.
  7. Trick; trickery.
  8. (obsolete) Drugged liquor.

Example Sentences

1677, Poor Robin’s Visions, London: Arthur Boldero, Eighth Vision, p. 117, […] to contemplate the miseries of a poor Poetick life, or study some well laid plot to Hocus his Landlady into a further credence or belief […]
HOCUS. To cheat. Hence the more modern term hoax.
“Well, I reckon you have lived in the country. I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again […].”
“You really are married by a priest or parson, not just hocussing me?”
1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, “The Hocussing of Cigarette” in Baroness Orczy’s Old Man in the Corner: The Old Man in the Corner, The Case of Miss Elliott, The Glasgow Mystery, Landsville, Pennsylvania: Coachwhip Publications, 2010, p. 243, Then I had a good think on the subject of the hocussing of Cigarette, and I was reluctantly bound to admit that once again the man in the corner had found the only possible solution to the mystery.
[…] but him they intended to disable by a trick then newly introduced amongst robbers, and termed hocussing, i. e., clandestinely drugging the liquor of the victim with laudanum […]
The last of the criminal cases are the thieves, who admit of being classified as follows: […] (2.) Those who hocus or plunder persons by stupefying […]
[…] he frantically reiterated his charge, that he had been robbed and hocussed in that house, that night, by Mrs. Brandon.

Synonyms for hocus

Antonyms for hocus

Related Words

pocushocus-pocushocus and pocushavehosefoolcozenplay withbetrickserve someone a trickcheatchouseshuckhave onput one overplayquizbantercullybamboozle

Word Forms

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does hocus mean?

Hocus means To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat..

What is a synonym for hocus?

The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.

What is the opposite of hocus?

The opposite depends on the specific sense.

How do you use hocus in a sentence?

1677, Poor Robin’s Visions, London: Arthur Boldero, Eighth Vision, p. 117, […] to contemplate the miseries of a poor Poetick life, or study some well laid plot to Hocus his Landlady into a further credence or belief […]

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.