cahoot

English

Etymology

For the noun, see cahoots. The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈhuːt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈhut/
• Rhymes: -uːt
• Hyphenation: ca‧hoot

Noun

cahoot (plural cahoots) (originally US, uncommon)

1. A company or partnership.
2. Chiefly preceded by in: a group of people working together, chiefly for a nefarious reason; hence, a collaboration or collusion.

   Synonym: cahoots

   • 1827 September 15, "The Wanderer", “Barney Blinn”, in Norwalk Reporter and Huron Advertiser‎^[1], Norwalk, OH, page 4:

     Gineral Government and the ministration are going in cahoot to undermine and overrule the undertakings of the free people of Georgia.

   • 1831 November 9, Natchez Gazette‎^[2], Natchez, MS, page 3:

     Nay, we feel in so pleasant a humour, at the recovery of the stolen articles, that we are really disposed to extend our forgiveness to the whole "Cahoot," the more particularly, as some of the suspected, have already "suffered in the flesh;"—[…]

3. An accomplice, a partner.
   • 1869, United States Congress, Congressional Globe, page 538, column 3:

     Fisk and his “cahoots” have got at cross purposes, and he has been put out of bed. Whether Fisk is rightly or wrongly out of bed is not for Congress to determine.

   • 1993, Mick Masson, Surviving the Dole Years: The 1930s, a Personal Story, →ISBN, page 108:

     This particular day he set the scene by arranging with his cahoots to clean up the local operators.

   • 2000, Suhas Chatterjee, A Socio-Economic History of South Assam, →ISBN, page 98:

     Intelligent and power loving Indraprabha took the advantage and agreed to become his cahoot in return of political supremacy.

Derived terms

• cahoots

Translations

company or partnership — see company,‎ partnership

group of people working together, chiefly for a nefarious reason

collaboration or collusion — see collaboration,‎ collusion

accomplice, partner — see accomplice,‎ partner

Verb

cahoot (third-person singular simple present cahoots, present participle cahooting, simple past and past participle cahooted)

1. (intransitive) To act in partnership.
   • 2003 June 6, “Thinking Right: Iraq, Clintons”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

     […] argument that we shouldn't be doing it, and if we do we'll fail, and if we succeed, our leaders were lying, tricking and cahooting with Halliburton?

Translations

to act in partnership

Anagrams

• atchoo