Adjacent Words

Hoax definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HOAX, n. Something done for deception or mockery; a trick played off in sport.
HOAX, v.t. To deceive; to play a trick upon for sport, or without malice. [A colloquial word, but not elegant.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery, hoax, humbug, put-on] v
1: subject to a playful hoax or joke [syn: hoax, pull someone's leg, play a joke on]

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb Etymology: probably contraction of hocus Date: circa 1796 to trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous • hoaxer noun II. noun Date: 1808 1. an act intended to trick or dupe ; imposture 2. something accepted or established by fraud or fabrication

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a humorous or malicious deception; a practical joke. --v.tr. deceive (a person) with a hoax. Derivatives: hoaxer n. Etymology: 18th c.: prob. contr. f. HOCUS

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hoax Hoax, n. [Prob. contr. fr. hocus, in hocus-pocus.] A deception for mockery or mischief; a deceptive trick or story; a practical joke. --Macaulay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hoax Hoax, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hoaxed; p. pr. & vb. n. Hoaxing.] To deceive by a story or a trick, for sport or mischief; to impose upon sportively. --Lamb.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(hoaxes) A hoax is a trick in which someone tells people a lie, for example that there is a bomb somewhere when there is not, or that a picture is genuine when it is not. He denied making the hoax call but was convicted after a short trial. N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft N n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Deception (for sport), cheat, fraud, imposition, imposture, canard, practical joke. II. v. a. Deceive (jocosely), cheat, impose upon.

Moby Thesaurus

bamboozle, befool, beguile, betray, bluff, cajole, cheat, cheat on, chicane, circumvent, clinquant, con, con game, conjure, counterfeit, cozen, deceive, deception, defraud, delude, diddle, double-cross, dummy, dupe, fake, fakement, flam, flimflam, fool, forestall, forgery, frame-up, fraud, game, gammon, get around, gull, gyp, hocus-pocus, hoodwink, hornswaggle, humbug, imitation, impostor, imposture, juggle, junk, let down, mock, outmaneuver, outreach, outsmart, outwit, overreach, paste, phony, pigeon, pinchbeck, play one false, put something over, put-on, put-up job, rip-off, scam, sell, sham, shoddy, simulacrum, snow, snow job, spoof, string along, swindle, take in, tinsel, trick, two-time, whited sepulcher