Antonyms for hokey-pokey

Grammar : Noun

Spell : hoh-kee-poh-kee

Phonetic Transcription : ˈhoʊ kiˈpoʊ ki

Definition of hokey-pokey

Origin : 1847, "false cheap material," perhaps an alteration of hocus-pocus, or from the nonsense chorus and title of a comic song (Hokey Pokey Whankey Fong) that was popular c.1830. Applied especially to cheap ice cream sold by street vendors (1884), in Philadelphia, and perhaps other places, it meant shaved ice with artificial flavoring. The words also were the title of a Weber-Fields musical revue from 1912. The modern dance song of that name hit the U.S. in 1950 ("Life" described it Nov. 27, 1950, as "a tuneless stomp that is now sweeping the U.C.L.A. campus"), but it is said to have originated in Britain in World War II, perhaps from a Canadian source.

As in monkey business : noun shenanigans
As in hanky-panky : noun monkey business

Example sentences :

Hot gauffrette and hokey-pokey venders are always near at hand.
Extract from : « Paris Vistas » by Helen Davenport Gibbons

Here is the poorer Italian colony; organ-grinders, ice-cream-barrow-men, "hokey-pokey" sellers, and their like.
Extract from : « Highways and Byways in London » by Mrs. E. T. Cook.

They both laughed, feeling like mischievous children who had played a successful trick on the hokey-pokey man.
Extract from : « The Lion and The Mouse » by Charles Klein

I didn't notice anything except a hokey-pokey seller, adding his mite to the infant mortality of the district.
Extract from : « The Clarion » by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Synonyms for hokey-pokey

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019