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 Hoax, subs. (old: now recognised).—A jest; a practical joke; a Take-in. Originally (Grose) University cant. [Probably from Hocus (q.v.).]

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hoaxing. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; joking an odd fellow.—University wit.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. Whose humble efforts at jocularity were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes.

1835-7. Richardson, Dict. Eng. Lang., s.v. Hoax. Malone considers the modern slang hoax as derived from hocus, and Archdeacon Nares agrees with him.

Verb. To play a practical joke; to 'take-in'; to BITE (q.v.). See subs. sense. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, xix. An arch young sprig, a banker's clerk, Resolv'd to hoax the rev'rend spark.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. viii. I thought you were hoaxing us, and I sat down to play the duet for the amiable purpose of exposing your ignorance.

Hob (or Hobbinol), subs (old).—A clown.—Grose.

Hob and Nob (or Hob Nob), verb. (old).—1. To invite to drink; to clink glasses.

1756. Foote, Englishman from Paris, i. With, perhaps, an occasional interruption of 'Here's to you, friends,' 'Hob or nob,' 'Your love and mine.'

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, ii. Duke. Lady Charlotte, hob or nob. Lady Char. Done, my lord; in Burgundy, if you please.

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VIII., ch. xxi. (new Ed., 1808). Having drunk hob or nob with a young lady in whose eyes he wished to appear a man of consequence, he hurried out into the summer-house.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hob nob—two persons pledging each other in a glass.

1836. Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet, 'Address to a Mummy.' Perchance that very hand now pinioned flat, Has Hoban-*nobbed with Pharoah glass for glass.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. He would have liked to hob and nob with celebrated pick-pockets, or drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 68. So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed.

2. (old).—To give or take; to hit or miss at random. [Saxon, habban, to have; nabban, not to have.]

1577-87. Holinshed, Chroncles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande (1807) p. 317. The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe (hit or miss) at random.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Hob-nob is his word, give 't or take 't.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, iv. Not of Jack Straw, with his rebellious crew, That set king, realm, and laws, at hab or nab.

1673. Quack Astrologer. He writes of the weather hab nab, and as the toy takes him, chequers the year with foul and fair.

3. (colloquial)—To be on terms of close intimacy; to consort familiarly together.

1870. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. i. They were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes.