hocus-pocus
Hocus-pocus is an illusion or a meaningless distraction that tricks you in some way. Some people believe in astrology, while others think horoscopes are nothing but hocus-pocus.
A car salesman might use smooth-talking hocus-pocus to distract you from the fact that you're paying way too much for your new convertible, and similarly, a magician uses hocus-pocus to draw her audience's attention away from the rabbit behind her back or the card up her sleeve. The word hocus-pocus originally came from magic shows, in fact — it's fake Latin, probably copied from the Latin Mass invocation, Hoc est corpus meum, "this is my body."
-
verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way
-
synonyms:
hanky panky, jiggery-pokery, skulduggery, skullduggery, slickness, trickery
-
type of:
-
deceit, deception, misrepresentation
a misleading falsehood
-
deceit, deception, misrepresentation
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
A paragraph of text
Copy citationLook up hocus-pocus for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
