Citations:hokum

English citations of hokum

[Probably eye-dialect for oakum (“tarred fibres”).] see also Citations:hoakum
- 1845, Joseph Ripley Chandler, An Oration, Delivered at the Laying of the Corner Stone of a Monument on Mount Zion, in Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1845:
  in turning the tread-mill, by which water is pumped to the top of the house and the loom for weaving cocoa nut cloth is moved, in making shoes and boots, and, as the officer said, in picking Hokum.
- 1856 December 6, Punch, volume 30, page 222:
  It's a dele plesenter to snooze in the prisun chapel than to be swettin on the mill or the crank, or tarein your ands to peaces with that blessed hokum.
- 1860 May 26, “My First Ca. Sa.”, in Once a Week, volume 2, page 496:
  Give me your 'and, hold feller — drink — I loves a gentleman as is a gentleman to my 'art, I does, — and I'll see you've summit to do as suits your abilities better than picking o' hokum.
[Sense uncertain.]
- 1895 December 19, “Granite State Notes”, in The Farm Implement News, volume 16, number 51, page 104:
  After arming themselves with a hammer they condoled together and took a "hokum sniffe" of "elixir of life" and rapped on the steam pipes so the noise would resound above. […] Returning again to the cellar they took another "hokum," rapped again and went up to consult the thermometer as before.