Sekirov Dictionary

hocus

/ˈhəʊkəs/

noun 4
verb 4
forms 6

noun4

•
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
•
(no longer used) A magician, illusionist, one who practises sleight of hand.
- ’Tis rather to exercise our Curiosity, and keep us from Idleness, or worse Diversions, as running mad after Buffoons, Dice, Fortune-tellers, and Hocus’s, &c. — 1689
(no longer used) One who cheats or deceives.
(no longer used) Drugged liquor.

verb4

•
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
•
(no longer used) 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
•
(no longer used) To adulterate (food).
- I had a healthy appetite, but the tradition was that all the food was unutterably bad, adulterated, hocussed. — 1915
•
(no longer used) 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

forms

hocused · hocussed · hocusing · hocussing · hocuses · hocusses

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