Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Devious or mischievous activity.
  • noun Illicit sexual activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Jugglery; trickery; legerdemain. Also spelled hankey-pankey.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mischievous behaviour, dishonest or shady activity. ("I think there was some hanky-panky with the last election.")
  • noun sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, especially if illicit.
  • noun a debaucherous act; a sexual act that is considered inappropriate.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of hokey-pokey, alteration of hocus-pocus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly a corruption of the Romani expression hakk'ni panki ("great trick", "big con" and hence "shady dealings").

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Examples

  • This co-resonance does not involve any hanky-panky.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

  • 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.

    Navy seeks to discharge sailor found asleep in bed with another male sailor 2011

  • 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).

    Ed Greenwood–Day 5 2010

  • "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.

    Betwa Sharma: India Survives Its Week of Leaks Betwa Sharma 2011

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

  • 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

    ~~~> I Want to�� 2010

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