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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hokum
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Jackson said the entire plan was hokum.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But one was left wondering at the decision to commit time, money and talent to this dingy piece of hokum.
▪ Cowboys, trail dust and great six-stringed hokum converge on Tucson this week with the ninth-annual Western Music Festival.
▪ Do not be tempted to dismiss such corporate homilies as boardroom hokum.
▪ One could tolerate this kind of hokum, if only the movie had some fun with it.
▪ Similarly the rise of Existentialism in the 1950s made an interest in matters spiritual seem like so much unfashionable hokum.
▪ The movie is nonstop, state-of-the-art, over-the-top Hollywood hokum.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hokum

1917, theater slang, "melodramatic, exaggerated acting," probably formed on model of bunkum (see bunk (n.2)), and perhaps influenced by or based on hocus-pocus.

Wiktionary
hokum

n. meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.

WordNet
hokum

n. a message that seems to convey no meaning [syn: nonsense, bunk, nonsensicality, meaninglessness]

Wikipedia
Hokum

Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early blues recordings and is used from time to time in modern American blues and blues rock.

An example of hokum lyrics is this sample from "Meat Balls", by Lil Johnson, recorded about 1937:

Hokum (disambiguation)

Hokum is a type of song in American blues music.

Hokum may refer to:

  • A euphemism for nonsense
  • The NATO code name for the Kamov Ka-50, a Russian attack helicopter
  • The Bell-Bristol Aerospace Hokum-X, a U.S. Army target drone

Usage examples of "hokum".

Goodling and Parrell agreed that Lanford might have listened to some hokum from Kermal.

The miracle worker, the one man in the world who translates a lot of theoretical, academic hokum into a pure Shastri defense.

All the old hokum, the ancient stagy stuff, the stirring drama of takeoff.

We had learned through long experience that apples, like most victuals of life, sold better with a side dressing of hokum and nostalgia.

Little of what he actually said was original, and often to us he comes across as unbelievably sentimental, real cornpone hokum stuff.

But at other times, you get to thinking that it's all hokum, and that can make you bitter as a bottle of bock beer.

I sang about the Big Wheel going by faith, and the Little Wheel going by the Grace of God, and I sang about Bones, Dry Bones, and I sang endlessly that I wasn't goin' to grieve my Lord no more, no more, and as I sang I reflected that in all of this hokum there was none of the sinewy theology on which I was brought up, and which has been the mainspring of my life.

No, I want no truck with 'homo-eroticism' and the awful, treacherous, gold-digging little queens you get stuck with in that caper: I want no truck with Gay Liberation or hokum about alternative life-styles: I want neither the love that dare not speak its name nor the love that blats its name to every grievance committee.

It appeared that all of the aircraft were Hokums, and that they were armed for air-to-air combat, carrying two missiles each.

On the other hand, leaving the two of them to engage the Hokums alone, while Jess and the remainder of the flight fled, could get them “killed.

The trap had been sprung perfectly and he’d thought that the blue team was toast when the eight Hokums came boiling over the ridges to his left and right.

Three of these four missiles “scored” on the Hokums, taking those three aircraft out of the exercise.

At the same time, two Hokums had fired at those two Comanches, electronically eliminating only one of them.

As they did so, the remaining four Hokums were able to take out one of the Comanches.

Two Comanches versus six Hokums had been taken out…and the Hokum was the most advanced OPFOR rotary aircraft in the world today.