Word.ws English Dictionary

hocus

/ˈhəʊkəs/

hocus verb: to play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.

Verb

hocus (third-person singular simple present hocuses or hocusses, present participle hocusing or hocussing, simple past and past participle hocused or hocussed)

  1. To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.
    • […] 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 […]1677, Poor Robin’s Visions, London: Arthur Boldero, Eighth Vision, p. 117
    • HOCUS. To cheat. Hence the more modern term hoax.1847, James Orchard Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, London: John Russell Smith, page 453
  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 […]1855, Thomas De Quincey, “Three Memorable Murders: A Sequel to ‘Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’”, in The Note Book of an English Opium-Eater, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 65
    • The last of the criminal cases are the thieves, who admit of being classified as follows: […] (2.) Those who hocus or plunder persons by stupefying […]1862, Henry Mayhew, John Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of Prison Life, London: Griffin, Bohn, Introduction, § 4, page 46
  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.1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC
    • [He] served them out three fingers of rum apiece, which the bo’sun took upon himself to hocus. By latest accounts, they’re sleeping it off […]1907, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “His Excellency’s Prize-Fight”, in Merry-Garden and Other Stories, London: Methuen, page 189
  4. (obsolete) To adulterate (food).
    • I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed.1915, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Schooldays”, in Escape and Other Essays, London: Smith, Elder, pages 197–198
    • “Those rotten Huns have been hocussing our grub.”1916, Percy F. Westerman, chapter 3, in Rounding Up the Raider, London: Blackie & Son

Noun

hocus (plural 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...1660, Don Pedro de Quixot, or in English the Right Reverend Hugh Peters, London: T. Smith
    • I called freely for what was in the house, which was readily brought me; but when the servants beheld with what cele[r]ity, (Hocus like) and cleanly conveyance, I had disposed of what was before me, they verily believed in one week, I would cause a dearth in the house […]1668, Richard Head, chapter 14, in The English Rogue Described, in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant, London: Francis Kirkman, page 150
  2. (obsolete) One who cheats or deceives.
    • […] when thy Brother has lost all that ever he had, and lies languishing, and even gasping under the utmost extremities of poverty and distress, dost thou think thus to lick him whole again, only with thy Tongue? just like that old formal Hocus, who denyed a Beggar a farthing, and put him off with...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
    • I have the Originals at This Present in my Hand, and there is the Paw of Tong and Otes so manifestly in the very Writing of them; as if they had not thought it worth the while to Disguise the Cheat. It was an Imposture, that their very Souls, Heads, Hearts, and Hands were All at Work upon; And the...1687, Roger L’Estrange, chapter 6, in A Brief History of the Times, &c., London: Charles Brome, page 106
  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 […]1665, William Johnson, Agyrto-Mastix, London: Henry Brome, page 30
    • The Jugler and the Judge, too, may complain,
      For both now strive to cheat the World in vain;
      In slight and shift and Trick they both agree,
      But a quick Eye may all their Hocus see:1693, Robert Gould, The Corruption of the Times by Money: A Satyr, London: Matthew Wotton, page 3
  4. (obsolete) Drugged liquor.

Examples of hocus in a sentence

  • I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again […].”1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Chapter 11”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s...
  • “You really are married by a priest or parson, not just hocussing me?”1936, Miles Franklin, chapter 20, in All That Swagger:
  • […] he frantically reiterated his charge, that he had been robbed and hocussed in that house, that night, by Mrs.1861 January – 1862 August, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Bearer of the Bowstring”, in The Adventures of Philip on His Way through...
  • It was an Imposture, that their very Souls, Heads, Hearts, and Hands were All at Work upon; And the Forgery Vndeniable; only Tong Himself was the Master-Hocus.1687, Roger L’Estrange, chapter 6, in A Brief History of the Times, &c., London: Charles Brome, page 106:

Forms of hocus

Verb
third-person singular presenthocuses
third-person singular presenthocusses
present participlehocusing
present participlehocussing
past participlehocused
pasthocused
past participlehocussed
pasthocussed
Noun
pluralhocuses

Origin of hocus

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

Phrases with hocus

Words that rhyme with hocus

Questions about hocus

What does hocus mean?
Hocus means to play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.
How do you use hocus in a sentence?
I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again […].”
What part of speech is hocus?
Hocus can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce hocus?
Hocus is pronounced /ˈhəʊkəs/.
What is the past tense of hocus?
The past tense of hocus is hocused.

Words near hocus in the dictionary

  1. hocos
  2. hocqueteur
  3. hocqueteurs
  4. hocum
  5. hocums
  6. hocus
  7. hocus and pocus
  8. hocus pocus
  9. hocus pocuser
  10. hocus pocusers
  11. hocus-pocus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hocus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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