Definition of "hocum"

Being in a mood of constructive criticism, I suggest that all future student conferences be made strictly social affairs. All addresses, forum discussions, patriotic service, and other hocums, as such, shall be done away with. Outside of a handful of persons, who either had to or did not know any better, everybody shunned the non-social events.

1926, The Chinese Students’ Monthly, volume 22, Detroit, Mich.: Chinese Students' Alliance in the United States of America, section III, page 66, column 2

ES: That thing that you call double bow, I've heard many different names for it. / JG: Rockin' the bow. / ES: I've heard it called a straight shuffle. I've heard it called hocum. Have you ever heard it called hocum? / JG: Yeah, we call the jazz hocum. You see, anything away from the melody.

1990, The Devil’s Box, Madison, Ala.: Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers’ Association, page 27

It is pure hocum, this language that they want more police officers, and they vetoed it over the lack of funding in this account. It is just a pure political thing.

1999, Congressional Record, volume 145, part 19, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, page 26921, column 2

The "classy" stuff is pretty to talk about, it furnishes inspiration for the dramatic writer, but it is the hocum, the jazbo, what vaudeville styles "comedy acts," which please an audience.

2005, Lawrence Gushee, quoting Sam Kahl, “The Second Season”, in Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 138