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. W. Still, 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.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Trav., 106 [Chiswick Press, 1891.] No other apte
meanes had this poore shee captived Cicely to worke her hoddy peake
husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy.
Hodge, subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.
1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. Arber, 1880]. These Arcadians
are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge.