hocus
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To deceive or trick: "hocus" means to cheat or deceive someone, often by playing a practical joke or trick.
- To drug or stupefy: "hocus" can also mean to administer a drug to someone, especially to make them unconscious or confused, or to mix a drug into a drink (such as alcohol).
Usage Examples
To deceive or trick:
- The street performer managed to hocus the crowd with his sleight of hand. (He deceived them by trickery.)
- He tried to hocus his friend by pretending to find a lost wallet. (He played a trick on his friend.)
To drug or stupefy:
- The thief attempted to hocus the guard by slipping a sedative into his wine. (He drugged the guard to make him unconscious.)
- The villain planned to hocus the victim's drink with a sleeping potion. (He added a drug to the drink.)
Advanced Usage
- "to hocus someone into doing something": to trick or deceive someone into taking a particular action.
- The con artist hocused the old man into signing over his property. (He deceived the old man into giving up his property.)
Variants and Related Words
Hocus-pocus (n): a phrase used to describe deceptive or trickery-based activity, often associated with magic or conjuring; also, meaningless or deceptive talk.
- The magician's performance was full of hocus-pocus. (It involved tricks and deception.)
Hocused (adj): the past participle of "hocus", meaning having been deceived or drugged.
- The hocused traveler woke up hours later with no memory of the event. (He had been drugged.)
Synonyms
- Bamboozle: to deceive or trick someone, often in a confusing way.
- Cheat: to act dishonestly to gain an advantage.
- Dope: to administer a drug to someone, especially to affect their state of mind.
Related Idioms
- Hocus-pocus: a term for trickery or magic, often used to dismiss something as deceptive or nonsensical.
- Don't believe all that hocus-pocus about easy money. (Don't believe deceptive claims.)