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.
   [1913 Webster]

	

	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.
   [1913 Webster]

	

	hoax
    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]

	

	78 Moby Thesaurus words for "hoax":
   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