Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang Devious or mischievous activity.
- n. Slang Illicit sexual activity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Jugglery; trickery; legerdemain. Also spelled hankey-pankey.
Wiktionary
- n. mischievous behaviour, dishonest or shady activity. ("I think there was some hanky-panky with the last election.")
- n. sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, especially if illicit.
- n. a debaucherous act; a sexual act that is considered inappropriate.
Etymologies
- Possibly a corruption of the Romani expression hakk'ni panki ("great trick", "big con" and hence "shady dealings"). (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of hokey-pokey, alteration of hocus-pocus. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This co-resonance does not involve any hanky-panky.”
“When I renewed last year, I did it on my own, just followed instructions, and got my prórroga without any problems and without any bureaucratic hanky-panky. clinn”
“Incomplete, selective and often misleading" is how Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary, who played a key role in the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal, describes the cables to Outlook, the magazine which exposed media hanky-panky last year.”
The Huffington Post: Betwa Sharma: India Survives Its Week of Leaks
“Navy officials, however, have a different view of his bedroom behavior at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, near Charleston, S.C. Even though there is no evidence the 21-year-old sailor committed any hanky-panky or that his friend was not permitted to visit, Jones has been charged with dereliction of duty.”
The Washington Post: Navy seeks to discharge sailor found asleep in bed with another male sailor
“The editor handed it over, and he read it and hit the proverbial roof at how explicit the sex scenes were (spankings, bondage, whippings, and hanky-panky in public on the hood of a car were all involved, as I recall).”
“The White House has claimed all along there was no political hanky-panky here, that they did not interfere in the Department of Energy's loan process, and that Solyndra's investors, at least one of which is an Obama donor, did not exert pressure.”
““Sounds like a live one to me, Good Buddy, you two doin the hanky-panky?””
“This film instead postulates that Ince knew about hanky-panky between Chaplin and Davies and was shot as a result.”
“It isn't about romantic hanky-panky or animosity between the celebs and their pro partners, when the biggest relationship story so far is that Brandy called Maksim Chmerkovskiy "an ass ----" during rehearsals.”
“He has gotten all 50 states to officially join him in his investigation of all the various illegal hanky-panky (that's a non-technical term for "fraud") by the banks and Wall Street in the growing disaster over foreclosure proceedings in the courts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hanky-panky’.
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Handy Words
List of words and phrases referring to the hand, hands, fist, or derivatives of the Latin manus, beginning with left-handed.
left-handed, double-fisted, fisticuffs, handy, right-handed, two-handed, manual, manumission, manuscript, manually, manustupration, manudiction and 164 more...
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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words i enjoy
wiggly-waggley, higgledy-piggledy, artsy-fartsy, clip-clop, fancy-shmancy, handy-andy, hanky-panky, heebie-jeebies, hoity-toity, hoochy koochy, hurdy-gurdy, bee's knees and 10 more...
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Hyphen-hyphen
A list of interesting words incorporating a hyphen
cat's-paw, sea-mew, kiss-me-quick, kiss-ass, yellow-bellied, lily-livered, hush-hush, hugger-mugger, fox-trot, super-duper, fuddy-duddy, boogie-woogie and 33 more...
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Choi inspired
Fun words my friend loves and others I introduced to him.
Namby-pamby, Niminy piminy, Nitpick, Nit-wit, Piggly-wiggly, Ping-pong, Pitter-patter, Raggle-taggle, Riff-raff, zoot suit, zig-zag, wishy-washy and 73 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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Double Trouble
Reduplicatives and more.
splish-splash, hip-hop, kit-kat, dingaling, hugger-mugger, even-steven, tit for tat, higgledy-piggledy, dilly-dally, boogie-woogie, knick-knack, mai tai and 131 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
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♡LOVE and things like it♡
dedicated to my man Steven, without whom i would be addicted to drugs, lying in a gutter, hating myself, or hooking somewhere :)
affectionate, amative, amatory, amiable, ammophilous, amorous, ardent, attached to, attracted to, beloved, bewitching, bitten and 404 more...
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oddball
wackadoodlery.
( personal list )
related (from me):
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopoeias--1
bric-a-brac, succotash, humbucker, skedaddle, scallywag, sassafras, gadzooks, humdinger, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, namby-pamby, ding dong and 441 more...
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amcd56's Words
undisillusioned, truthiness, wikiality, nonunparallel, bafflegab, otiose, snarky, gynotikolobomasso..., battology, unasinous, zaftig, mumbo-jumbo and 122 more...
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Clever and funny words
droll, huzzah, skedaddle, vamoose, rumpus, touche, clusterfuck, twaddle, tomfoolery, shindig, fandango, scallywag and 21 more...
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This Higgledy-Piggledy Raggle-Taggle ...
flimflam, higgledy-piggledy, raggle-taggle, heebie-jeebies, bric-a-brac, tip-top, holus-bolus, hocus-pocus, hobson-jobson, riffraff, artsy-fartsy, harum-scarum and 28 more...
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they trip off the tongue
interesting compounds
flummadiddle, flapdoodle, lickety-split, jiggery-pokery, whangdoodle, whippersnapper, mumbo jumbo, shilly-shally, fiddle-faddle, topsy-turvy, fuddy-duddy, hugger-mugger and 38 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hanky-panky.

sonofgroucho Spelled hanky panky by some. Jan 17, 2008