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hocus

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hocus

  • /ˈhəʊkəs/

Rhymes with -əʊkəs

Where it comes from

Pseudo-Latinism, derived from ellipsis of hocus-pocus. The verb is from the noun.

verb hocuses · hocusses · hocusing · hocussing · hocused

  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 […]
  2. obsolete 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 […]
  3. obsolete 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.
  4. obsolete To adulterate (food). I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed.

noun hocuses

  1. obsolete 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 their information and edification, this Legerdemain (for it is supposed it will h
  2. obsolete 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 all that ever he had, and lies languishing, and even gasping under the utmost extr
  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 […]
  4. obsolete Drugged liquor.

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MLA

"hocus." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hocus. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

hocus. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hocus

Chicago

"hocus." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hocus.

BibTeX
@misc{hocus_2026,
  title = {hocus},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hocus},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}