hokey-pokey slang or colloq.
(ˈhəʊkɪˈpəʊkɪ)
Also hoky-poky.
[In sense 1, altered from hocus-pocus; in sense 2, perh. of distinct origin.]
1. (Cf. hocus-pocus 2.) Deception, cheatery, underhand work.
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Hoky-poky, hocus-pocus. North. 1893 Farmer Slang, Hokey-pokey. 1. A cheat; a swindle; nonsense. (From Hocus Pocus.) |
2. A cheap kind of ice-cream, sold by street vendors.
| 1884 Sunday Mag. Nov. 715/1 ‘Hokey-pokey, pokey ho!’..a curiously compounded beverage. 1885 Tuer Old Lond. Cries 58 Hokey Pokey is of a firmer make and probably stiffer material than the penny ice of the Italians. 1888 Pall Mall G. 25 Sept. 3/2 The correct origin of the term ‘Hokey Pokey, a penny a lump’. [An incident is related as tending to identify the term with the It. O che poco! ‘O how little!’] 1910 A. Bennett Clayhanger ii. 226 Three hokey-pokey ice-cream hand-carts, one after another, turned the corner of Trafalgar Road. 1955 Times 8 June 7/4 ‘Hokey-pokey’, which, as children used to know, sold for a penny a lump and was (presumably because of its freezing touch on the tongue) the stuff to make you jump. 1970 J. Brown Unmelting Pot i. 23 An Italian organ-grinder..who sold ice⁓cream or hokey-pokey at ½d a piece during the summer. |
3. Cf. hokey n., and pokey-hokey in Spurdens Supp. to Forby.
| 1883 Bread-Winners 231 By the great hokey-pokey! they couldn't keep it up a minute when their wives came. |
4. A toffee-like sweet. N.Z.
| 1939 ‘K. Mansfield’ Scrapbook 3 We always gave him the same presents..three cakes of hoky-poky. |