MAGIC WORDS • Dramatic air "With many flourishes and the hocus-pocus of a magician he extracted the ring from his vest pocket and placed it on my mother's finger." -- Michael Gold, Jews Without Money (19 0) • Flashy act "Give 'em the old hocus pocus." -- Fred Ebb, "Razzle Dazzle," Chicago (1975) • Flight of fancy -- Lloyd Cope, Astrologer's Forecasting Workbook (1995) • Gibberish "[The vaudeville hypnotist] would chant some hocus-pocus gibberish while waving the handkerchief in front of a volunteer's face." -- Roberta Temes, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hypnosis (2000) • Guru, spiritual leader "[M]y friend, philosopher, hocus-pocus and guide." -- Louis H Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings (1918) • Hanky panky "If there's been any hocus pocus, it seems probable that she's at the bottom of it." -- Agatha Christie, Crooked House (1948) • Hex "She proceeded to make a hocus-pocus sign with two fingers in the general vicinity of her friend's womb." -- Cheryl Sterling, What Do You Say To A Naked Elf? (2005) • Incantation -- Hajo Holborn, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (2002) "Why didn't the priests say the hocus-pocus over them, and make them all good again?" -- Jerry Z. Muller, Conservatism (1997) • Intuitive wisdom, as from one's "sixth sense" -- Vicki Iovine, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy (1995) • Jargon, esoteric language "The cops, district attorney, judge, and jury don't want a bunch of scientific hocus-pocus, they want straightforward information to help them decide what to do." -- Larry Ragle, Crime Scene (1995) • Joke, folly "But suppose the whole matter were really a hocus-pocus. Suppose that whatever meaning you may choose in your fancy to give to it, the real meaning of the whole was mockery. Suppose it was all folly." -- G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) • Magic "They play hocus pocus tricks enough there . . ." -- Royall Tyler, The Contrast (1787), anthologized in Early American Drama by Jeffrey H. Richards (1997) "She is the magician, the one who possesses the hocus-pocus." -- Koren Zailckas, Smashed (2005)