jiggery-pokery

[ jig-uh-ree-poh-kuh-ree ]

nounChiefly British.

trickery, hocus-pocus; fraud; humbug.
sly, underhanded action.

manipulation: After a little jiggery-pokery, the engine started.

Origin of jiggery-pokery

1890–95; alteration of joukery-pawkery.See jouk, pawky, -ery

Words Nearby jiggery-pokery

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use jiggery-pokery in a sentence

You don't think any jiggery-pokery of this sort is going to snatch Clayton into the world of shades.
Twelve Stories and a Dream | H. G. Wells
Those chaps up there, they'll play jiggery-pokery with sugar if we aren't careful.
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman | H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Besides, he's fatter than Belloc and he's a damned jiggery-pokery Papist too!
Changing Winds | St. John G. Ervine

British Dictionary definitions for jiggery-pokery

jiggery-pokery

/ (ˈdʒɪɡərɪˈpəʊkərɪ) /

noun

informal, mainly British dishonest or deceitful behaviour or business; trickery

Origin of jiggery-pokery

C19: from Scottish dialect joukery-pawkery

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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