hocus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Mentalist and theater artist Vinny DePonto, a bearded, soft-spoken man with gentle eyes, doesn’t want to bamboozle us with hocus pocus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
“What he did for those 20 hours is hocus pocus,” Richards said in urging jurors to reject consideration of the image.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2021
Imam Hasan, who is based at the Al-Emaan Centre in Bromley, Kent, said ruqya is misunderstood and rejected myths of "spells, magic wands or hocus pocus" being involved.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2021
“We’ve always been interested in how music impacts the mentally ill, but some scientists shun the idea of researching this because it’s been viewed as hocus pocus,” he said.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 6, 2018
Also, there is no hocus pocus that can possibly be devized with rings and veils and vows and benedictions that can fix either a man's or woman's affection for twenty minutes, much less twenty years.
From Getting Married by Bernard Shaw
It must have been working as sweet and steady as ever, all the time it was Inverted, except that, being inside out, it had hocused the direction finders.
From The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Realizing this almost gave my mind stage fright, but I was too fagged to be hocused by self-consciousness.
From The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
He is Moore hocused for the American market.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 Volume 23, Number 2 by Various
These pieces would deceive any amateur and quite a few experts: they fairly hocussed me till I turned on the glasses.
From A Drake by George! by John Trevena
The horses he had "nobbled," the jockeys "squared," the owners "hocussed," were legion.
From Davenport Dunn, Volume 1 (of 2) A Man Of Our Day by Charles James Lever
"I feel as queer as if I had been hocussed."
From Colonel Thorndyke's Secret by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
"But you see we are not quite such fools as we look; and we have heard of such a thing, in our time, as hocussed wine."
From A Rogue's Life by Wilkie Collins
He used to be hocussed with water of an evil taste, and wake in a clean shirt.
From Historical Mysteries by Andrew Lang
There is no chance of hocussing a horse, or laming him, or bribing a stable boy, or squaring a jockey.
From Hard Pressed by Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White
"The operation—combining equal parts of hocussing, overcharging, and direct robbery—and facetiously christened by bush landlords `lambing down.'"
From Austral English A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia by Edward Ellis Morris
Then he became absorbed in steering, and sternly rejected all further consideration of his gift; he would have neither hand nor part in hocussing French agriculturalists posing as mariners.
From The Admirable Tinker Child of the World by Edgar Jepson
The fortune-tellers have been consulted about them; dreamers have dreamed the winners; and many an underhand attempt, sometimes including the hocussing of men or horses, has been made to corrupt the sport.
From Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul by T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker
The Doctor espoused the moral hocussing system, and Feargus took up the bludgeon for physical force.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 13, 1841 by Various
