hocus-pocusing

Variant of hocus-pocus

hocus-pocus definition

hocus-pocus (-pō′kəs)

noun

  1. meaningless words used as a formula by conjurers
  2. a magician's trick or trickery; sleight of hand; legerdemain
  3. any meaningless action or talk drawing attention away from some deception
  4. trickery; deception

Etymology: imitation L, prob. altered < hax pax (max Deus adimax), arbitrary magic formula attributed to medieval traveling scholars

transitive verb, intransitive verb hocus-pocused -·cused or hocus-pocussed -·cussed, hocus-pocusing -·cusing or hocus-pocussing -·cussing

Informal to trick; dupe

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.