Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hocus-pocus \Ho"cus-po"cus\, v. t.
To cheat. [Colloq.]
--L'Estrange.
Hocus-pocus \Ho"cus-po"cus\, n. [Prob. invented by jugglers in imitation of Latin. Cf. Hoax, Hocus.]
A term used by magicians or conjurers in pretended incantations.
A juggler or trickster. [Archaic]
--Sir T. Herbert.A magician's trick; a cheat; nonsense.
--Hudibras.-
Obfuscating talk or elaborate but meaningless activity intended to hide a deception or to obscure what is actually happening; verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way.
Syn: trickery, slickness, hanky panky, jiggery-pokery, skulduggery, skullduggery.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, Hocas Pocas, common name of a magician or juggler, a sham-Latin invocation used in tricks, probably based on a perversion of the sacramental blessing from the Mass, Hoc est corpus meum "This is my body." The first to make this speculation on its origin apparently was English prelate John Tillotson (1630-1694).I will speak of one man ... that went about in King James his time ... who called himself, the Kings Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was called, because that at the playing of every Trick, he used to say, Hocus pocus, tontus tabantus, vade celeriter jubeo, a dark composure of words, to blinde the eyes of the beholders, to make his Trick pass the more currantly without discovery. [Thomas Ady, "A Candle in the Dark," 1655]
Wiktionary
interj. A phrase used as a magical incantation to bring about some change. n. A specific act of trickery or nonsense.
WordNet
n. verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way [syn: trickery, slickness, hanky panky, jiggery-pokery, skulduggery, skullduggery]
[also: hocus-pocussing, hocus-pocussed]
Usage examples of "hocus-pocus".
So when forty dollars came back in a rumal, he gave the little jerks the Indian hocus-pocus they wanted and took the money.
In line with a decision of the Socialist Party in the Bundestag, it refuses to have any truck with medieval hocus-pocus.
How was it possible that I, a rational man, not unacquainted with the leading scientific facts of our history, and hitherto an absolute and utter disbeliever in all the hocus-pocus which in Europe goes by the name of the supernatural, could believe that I had within the last few minutes been engaged in conversation with a woman two thousand and odd years old?
As soon as we begin to read about the so-called system we are in the middle of a hocus-pocus of Great Wheels, gyres, cycles of the moon, reincarnation, disembodied spirits, astrology and what not.
Layman readers can follow the scientific terminology and complex story lines without the hocus-pocus that often beclouds science fiction.
The system's pick-up arm moved gently up and down and fed its sonic messages into the bank of electronical hocus-pocus.
Months ago, Tom had nearly thrown it away, but in the end had let it be, as a reminder that he had slain this particular dragon without any twelve-step program or other hocus-pocus.