1824-28. Landor, Imaginary Conversations [2nd Ed., ii., 275]. Torke. What think you, for instance, of Hocus! Pocus! Johnson. Sir, those are exclamations of conjurors, as they call themselves.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar., p. 5, c. 3. The lock of hair, the dragon's blood, and the stolen flour were only the hocus-pocus of her sham witchcraft like the transfixed waxen puppets of the sorcerers of the past.
2. (old).—A trickster; a juggler; an impostor.
1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. That was the old way, gossip, when Iniquity came in [on the stage] like Hokos Pokos, in a juggler's jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs.
1634. Hocus Pocus Junior, The Anatomie of Leger de main. [Title].
1656. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Hocus Pocus, a juggler, one that shows tricks by sleight of hand.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hocus-pocus, a Juggler that shews Tricks by Slight of Hand.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
3. (old).—A cheat; an imposition; a juggler's trick.
1713. Bentley, Free Thinking, 12. Our author is playing hocus-pocus in the very similitude he takes from that juggler.
4. (old).—See Hocus, sense 2.
Adj. (old).—Cheating; fraudulent.
1715. Addison, The Drummer. If thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to play, why can'st not do them here?
1725-29. Mason, Horace, iv., 8. Such hocus-pocus tricks, I own, Belong to Gallic bards alone.
1759. Macklin, Love à la Mode, ii., 1. The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science that smiles in yer face while it picks your pocket.
Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick.
Hod (or Brother Hod), subs.
(common).—A bricklayer's labourer.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Hod of Mortar, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A pot of porter.
HODDY-DODDY (or HODDIE-DODDIE),
subs. (old).—A short thick-*set
man or woman. The full expression
is 'Hoddy Doddy, all
arse and no body.'—Grose. For
synonyms, see Forty-guts. Also
a fool.
c. 1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 58). Sometimes I hang on Hankyn hoddy-doddy's sleeve.
1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Well, good wife bawd, Cob's wife, and you, That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy.
1639-61. Rump Songs, ii. [1662], 55. Every noddy . . . will . . . cry hoddy-doddy Here's a Parliament all arse and no body.
1723. Swift, Mary the Cookmaid's Letter (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, xi., 433). My master is a personable man, and not a spindle-shanked Hoddy-doddy.
Hoddy-peak (or -Peke), subs.
(old).—A fool; a cuckold.
d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, 'Duke of Albany.' Gyue it up, And cry creke Lyke an HUDDY PEKE.
1551. Gammer Gurton, O. P., ii., 45. Art here again, thou hoddypeke?
1554. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. They counte peace to be cause of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodi-*pekes and cowardes.
d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 44, b. What, ye brainsicke fooles, ye hoddy-*peakes, ye doddy poules.
1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 164). Yea, marry, I warrant you, master hoddy-peak.
1589. Nashe, Anatomie of Absurdities, b. Who, under her husband's that hoddy-peke's nose, Must have all the destilling dew of his delicate rose.
