Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to hocus
Participle: hocussed
Gerund: hocussing
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | hocus |
| you | hocus |
| he;she;it | hocusses |
| we | hocus |
| you | hocus |
| they | hocus |
Perfect
| I | have hocussed |
| you | have hocussed |
| he;she;it | has hocussed |
| we | have hocussed |
| you | have hocussed |
| they | have hocussed |
Past
| I | hocussed |
| you | hocussed |
| he;she;it | hocussed |
| we | hocussed |
| you | hocussed |
| they | hocussed |
Pluperfect
| I | had hocussed |
| you | had hocussed |
| he;she;it | had hocussed |
| we | had hocussed |
| you | had hocussed |
| they | had hocussed |
Future
| I | will hocus |
| you | will hocus |
| he;she;it | will hocus |
| we | will hocus |
| you | will hocus |
| they | will hocus |
Future Perfect
| I | will have hocussed |
| you | will have hocussed |
| he;she;it | will have hocussed |
| we | will have hocussed |
| you | will have hocussed |
| they | will have hocussed |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | hocus |
| you | hocus |
| he;she;it | hocus |
| we | hocus |
| you | hocus |
| they | hocus |
Perfect
| I | have hocussed |
| you | have hocussed |
| he;she;it | have hocussed |
| we | have hocussed |
| you | have hocussed |
| they | have hocussed |
Imperfect
| I | hocussed |
| you | hocussed |
| he;she;it | hocussed |
| we | hocussed |
| you | hocussed |
| they | hocussed |
Pluperfect
| I | had hocussed |
| you | had hocussed |
| he;she;it | had hocussed |
| we | had hocussed |
| you | had hocussed |
| they | had hocussed |
Conditional
Present
| I | would hocus |
| you | would hocus |
| he;she;it | would hocus |
| we | would hocus |
| you | would hocus |
| they | would hocus |
Perfect
| I | would have hocussed |
| you | would have hocussed |
| he;she;it | would have hocussed |
| we | would have hocussed |
| you | would have hocussed |
| they | would have hocussed |
Imperative
| you | hocus |
| we | Let's hocus |
| you | hocus |
Verbs conjugated like 'hocus'
bus,
embus,
hocus,
hocus-pocus,
nonplus,
quiz,
debus,
dis,
fiz,
non-plus,
nonpros,
off-gas,
offgas,
poz,
pus,
regas,
rez,
spaz,
Verbs similar to 'hocus'
focus,
bolus,
bonus,
chorus,
hock,
house,
locust,
tocut,
accuse,
becue,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
Shortened from hocus-pocus. The verb is from the noun.
Sample Sentences
-
1677, Poor Robin’s Visions, London: Arthur Boldero, Eighth Vision, p. 117,
-
[…] 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 […]
-
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:]
-
“Well, I reckon you have lived in the country. 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 Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:]
-
“You really are married by a priest or parson, not just hocussing me?” [1936, Miles Franklin, chapter 20, in All That Swagger:]
-
[…] 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:]
-
[…] he frantically reiterated his charge, that he had been robbed and hocussed in that house, that night, by Mrs. Brandon. [1861 January – 1862 August, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Bearer of the Bowstring”, in The Adventures of Philip on His Way through the World; […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1862, →OCLC, page 207:]
-
1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, “The Hocussing of Cigarette” in Baroness Orczy’s Old Man in the Corner: The Old Man in the Corner, The Case of Miss Elliott, The Glasgow Mystery, Landsville, Pennsylvania: Coachwhip Publications, 2010, p. 243,
-
Then I had a good think on the subject of the hocussing of Cigarette, and I was reluctantly bound to admit that once again the man in the corner had found the only possible solution to the mystery.
-
[…] 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:]
-
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:]