hocus-pocus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sometimes this hocus-pocus worked wonders; at other times it felt like cheap tricks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2025
Until we all pay attention to what matters, the fee hocus-pocus will never stop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Even up close, it was impossible to tell whether it was all sleight of hand or real hocus-pocus.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2021
Endeavoring to access Langley’s notebooks, she cozies up to his niece, a down-at-the-heels dealer in antiquarian books who isn’t above employing a little Lee Israel-style hocus-pocus to produce fake inventory for a credulous clientele.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2019
"Right. But this stuff is all, like... mystical. What we were talking about on the phone today? I was talking about reality, real people, not a bunch of hocus-pocus."
From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements
As it chanced he must have hocus-pocused them wrong, for though his hand was full of trumps, Rodd held nothing at all.
From Finished by Henry Rider Haggard
"And I'm the pertickler party that hocus-pocused 'em."
From A Daughter of the Snows by Jack London
This fellow Strange, with his fortune-tellin' and his charms and his conjures, has hocus-pocussed the whole neighborhood.
From Heart of the Sunset by Rex Ellingwood Beach
But when one has been hocus-pocussed about anything one ... one feels very strongly about, one gets suspicious of everybody....
From When Ghost Meets Ghost by William Frend De Morgan
