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.
See Examples For:
“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
I don’t speak in delphic tongues or offer holy absolution or perform shamanic hocus pocus; I really don’t do much of anything but sit there, listen and try to tell the truth.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2018
“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
"So it is, ma'am," said Kantwise, "only this, you know, if I hocus you, why you hocus me in return; so it isn't so very unfair, you know."
From Orley Farm by Trollope, Anthony
He is Moore hocused for the American market.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 Volume 23, Number 2 by Various
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 Leiber, Fritz
Realizing this almost gave my mind stage fright, but I was too fagged to be hocused by self-consciousness.
From The Big Time by Leiber, Fritz
Since the time when Boer spies hocussed him on guard—you remember that lovely affair?—he's registered a vow to impress me with his gallantry and devotion, or die in the attempt.
From The Dop Doctor by Dehan, Richard
These rascals had given him hocussed rum, and had got him away, probably tied to one of the horses.
From The Missing Link by Dyson, Edward
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 Trevena, John
"I feel as queer as if I had been hocussed."
From Colonel Thorndyke's Secret by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
No, out of this glass of mine, if you please, just to show that it isn't hocussed.
From The White Blackbird by Douglas, Hudson
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
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 Tucker, T. G. (Thomas George)
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 Jepson, Edgar
There is no chance of hocussing a horse, or laming him, or bribing a stable boy, or squaring a jockey.
From Hard Pressed by White, Fred M. (Fred Merrick)
"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 Morris, Edward Ellis
