hocus
/ˈhəʊkəs
/verb (hocusses, hocussing, hocussed or hocuses, hocusing, hocused) [with object] archaic
1Deceive (someone): these people have been hocussed and cheated by the government...
- This applies particularly to commercial albumin, especially egg, which is hocused to a great extent by the unscrupulous.
- I think you were hocused by the telephoto lens that was apparantly used to take the photograph you are referring to.
- These surfers have hocused the Feds for long enough.
2Stupefy (someone) with drugs, typically for a criminal purpose: he was hocussed at supper and lost £800...
- But I was one night suspected of hocussing and robbing a sailor, and - though if I was on my death-bed I could swear that I never had any hand in the affair at all - I was so blown upon that I was forced to shift my quarters.
Origin
Late 17th century: from an obsolete noun hocus 'trickery', from hocus-pocus.
Rhymes
- reptile house
- reptile man
- reptile oil
- Reptilia
- reptilian
- reptilian brain
- reptiliary
- reptilious
- reptilism
- reptility
- reptillery
- reptiloid
- Repton, Humphry
- Repub.
- republic
- republical
- republican
- republican calendar
- republican era
- Republican Guard
- republicanise
- republicanism
- republicanization
- republicanize
- republicanized