hocus

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

Noun

  1. A magician, illusionist, one who practises sleight of hand.
    • Certainly he was the bravest Ambodexter of his time, and this blinded age, or that ever was among us dull Northern people; and among the multitude of his Tricks, I shall commend to the Hocusses of Bartholomew Fair, for...
    • I called freely for what was in the house, which was readily brought me; but when the servants beheld with what cele[r]ity, (Hocus like) and cleanly conveyance, I had disposed of what was before me, they verily believed...
    • 1689, Roger L’Estrange (translator), Twenty-Two Select Colloquies out of Erasmus Roterodamus, London: R. Bentley & R. Sare, p. 33, ’Tis rather to exercise our Curiosity, and keep us from Idleness, or worse Diversions,...
  2. One who cheats or deceives.
    • 1685, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, Before the University, May 3. 1685” in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 523, […] when thy Brother has lost...
    • I have the Originals at This Present in my Hand, and there is the Paw of Tong and Otes so manifestly in the very Writing of them; as if they had not thought it worth the while to Disguise the Cheat. It was an Imposture,...
  3. Trick; trickery.
    • As in almost every Chapter of his Book, so in this Seventh, he has a new Hocus to carry on his old design […] - 1665, William Johnson, Agyrto-Mastix, London: Henry Brome, page 30:
    • The Jugler and the Judge, too, may complain, For both now strive to cheat the World in vain; In slight and shift and Trick they both agree, But a quick Eye may all their Hocus see: - 1693, Robert Gould, The Corruption...
    • 1871, Benjamin Jowett, letter to Florence Nightingale dated 29 September, 1871, cited in Edward Tyas Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, London: Macmillan, 1913, Volume 2, Part 7, Chapter 1, p. 223, […] I do not...
  4. Drugged liquor.

Origin

Shortened from hocus-pocus. The verb is from the noun.

Forms

hocuses

Related

hocus-pocus

Verb

  1. To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.
    • 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. - 1847, James Orchard Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, London: John Russell Smith, page 453:
    • “Well, I reckon you have lived in the country. I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again […].” - 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter 11”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry...
  2. To stupefy (someone) with drugged liquor (especially in order to steal from them).
    • […] 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 […] - 1855, Thomas De Quincey, “Three...
    • 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 […] - 1862, Henry Mayhew, John Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London...
    • […] he frantically reiterated his charge, that he had been robbed and hocussed in that house, that night, by Mrs. Brandon. - 1861 January – 1862 August, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Bearer of the Bowstring”, in...
  3. To drug (liquor).
    • […] I think the wine of them two Governors was—I will not say a hocussed wine, but fur from a wine as was elthy for the mind. - 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I,...
    • [He] served them out three fingers of rum apiece, which the bo’sun took upon himself to hocus. By latest accounts, they’re sleeping it off […] - 1907, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “His Excellency’s Prize-Fight”, in...
  4. To adulterate (food).
    • I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed. - 1915, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Schooldays”, in Escape and Other Essays, London: Smith, Elder, pages...
    • “Those rotten Huns have been hocussing our grub.” - 1916, Percy F. Westerman, chapter 3, in Rounding Up the Raider, London: Blackie & Son:

Forms

hocuses hocusses hocusing hocussing hocused hocussed