hocus-pocus

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: ho=cus-po=cus

CIDE DICTIONARY

hocus-pocus, n. [Prob. invented by jugglers in imitation of Latin. Cf. Hoax, Hocus.].

•  A term used by magicians or conjurers in pretended incantations.  [1913 Webster]
•  A juggler or trickster.  Sir T. Herbert.  [1913 Webster]
•  A magician's trick; a cheat; nonsense.  Hudibras.  [1913 Webster]
•  Obfuscating talk or elaborate but meaningless activity intended to hide a deception or to obscure what is actually happening; verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way.  [WordNet 1.5]

hocus-pocus, v. t. 

 To cheat.  L'Estrange.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hocus-pocus, n. & v.
--n.
1 deception; trickery.
2 a typical verbal formula used in conjuring.
--v. (-pocussed, -pocussing; US -pocused, -pocusing)
1 intr. (often foll. by with) play tricks.
2 tr. play tricks on, deceive.

Etymology

17th-c. sham L

THESAURUS

hocus-pocus

abracadabra, artifice, cheat, chicanery, con game, conjuring, deceit, deception, duplicity, flimflam, gibberish, hanky-panky, hoax, humbug, incantation, jiggery-pokery, jugglery, legerdemain, magic, mischief, mumbo-jumbo, nonsense, prestidigitation, rigmarole, sleight of hand, swindle, trick, trickery

ROGET THESAURUS

hocus-pocus

Interchange

N interchange, exchange, commutation, permutation, intermutation, reciprocation, transposition, rearrangement, shuffling, alternation, reciprocity, castling (at chess), hocus-pocus, interchangeableness, interchangeability, recombination, combination, barter, tit for tat, cross fire, battledore and shuttlecock, quid pro quo, interchanged, reciprocal, mutual, commutative, interchangeable, intercurrent, combinatorial, recombinant, in exchange, vice versa, mutatis mutandis, backwards and forwards, by turns, turn and turn about, each in his turn, everyone in his turn.

Sorcery

N sorcery, occult art, occult sciences, magic, the black art, necromancy, theurgy, thaumaturgy, demonology, demonomy, demonship, diablerie, bedevilment, witchcraft, witchery, glamor, fetishism, fetichism, feticism, ghost dance, hoodoo, obi, obiism, voodoo, voodooism, Shamanism (Esquimaux), vampirism, conjuration, bewitchery, exorcism, enchantment, mysticism, second sight, mesmerism, animal magnetism, od force, odylic force, electrobiology, clairvoyance, spiritualism, spirit rapping, table turning, divination, sortilege, ordeal, sortes Virgilianae, hocus-pocus, magic, magical, mystic, weird, cabalistic, talismanic, phylacteric, incantatory, charmed, Circean, odylic, voodoo.

Unmeaningness

N meaninglessness, unmeaningness, scrabble, empty sound, dead letter, vox et praeterea nihil, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish, jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie, inanity, flap-doodle, rigmarole, rodomontade, truism, nugae canorae, twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug, poppy-cock, stuff, stuff and nonsense, bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle- faddle, absurdity, vagueness, boilerplate, clich_¬, unmeaning, meaningless, senseless, nonsensical, void of sense, inexpressive, unexpressive, vacant, not significant, insignificant, trashy, washy, trumpery, trivial, fiddle-faddle, twaddling, quibbling, unmeant, not expressed, tacit, inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.

Deception

N deception, falseness, untruth, imposition, imposture, fraud, deceit, guile, fraudulence, fraudulency, covin, knavery, misrepresentation, bluff, straw-bail, straw bid, spoof, delusion, gullery, juggling, jugglery, slight of hand, legerdemain, prestigiation, prestidigitation, magic, conjuring, conjuration, hocus-pocus, escamoterie, jockeyship, trickery, coggery, chicanery, supercherie, cozenage, circumvention, ingannation, collusion, treachery, practical joke, trick, cheat, wile, blind, feint, plant, bubble, fetch, catch, chicane, juggle, reach, hocus, bite, card sharping, stacked deck, loaded dice, quick shuffle, double dealing, dealing seconds, dealing from the bottom of the deck, artful dodge, swindle, tricks upon travelers, stratagem, confidence trick, fake, hoax, theft, ballot-box stuffing, barney, brace game, bunko game, drop game, gum game, panel game, shell game, thimblerig, skin game, snare, trap, pitfall, decoy, gin, springe, springle, noose, hoot, bait, decoy-duck, tub to the whale, baited trap, guet-a-pens, cobweb, net, meshes, toils, mouse trap, birdlime, dionaea, Venus's flytrap, ambush, trapdoor, sliding panel, false bottom, spring-net, spring net, spring gun, mask, masked battery, mine, flytrap, green goods, panel house, Cornish hug, wolf in sheep's clothing, disguise, disguisement, false colors, masquerade, mummery, borrowed plumes, pattes de velours, mockery, copy, counterfeit, sham, make- believe, forgery, fraud, lie, a delusion a mockery and a snare, hollow mockery, whited sepulcher, painted sepulcher, tinsel, paste, junk jewelry, costume jewelry, false jewelry, synthetic jewels, scagliola, ormolu, German silver, albata, paktong, white metal, Britannia metal, paint, veneer, jerry building, man of straw, illusion, ignis fatuus, mirage, deceived, deceiving, cunning, prestigious, prestigiatory, deceptive, deceptious, deceitful, covinous, delusive, delusory, illusive, illusory, elusive, insidious, ad captandum vulgus, untrue, mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, snide, pseudo, spurious, supposititious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, scamped, fraudulent, tricky, factitious bastard, surreptitious, illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated, unsound, rotten at the core, colorable, disguised, meretricious, tinsel, pinchbeck, plated, catchpenny, Brummagem, artificial, synthetic, ersatz, simulated, under false colors, under the garb of, under cover of, over the left, keep the word of promise to the ear and break it t, fronti nulla fides, ah that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, a quicksand of deceit, decipimur specie recti, falsi crimen, fraus est celare fraudem, lupus in fabula, so smooth, he daubed his vice with show of virtue.