cahoot

noun

ca·​hoot kə-ˈhüt 

plural cahoots

informal

: partnership, league

—usually used in plural

—usually used in phrases like in cahoots to describe people or groups working together or making plans together in secret

… shadowy characters in cahoots who work their secret ends until they are flushed out by intrepid reporting.

—Garrison Keillor

… fraud can be nearly impossible to detect whenever two law firm insiders are in cahoots …

—Rorie Sherman

… a formidable American beauty who is in cahoots with the C.I.A.

—Patrick Anderson

Friends of the terminally ill jeweler are ready to see him go to Ireland. They got into cahoots, as he puts it, to fund a 'Send Dick to Ireland' trip with a weekend yard sale …

—Andrea Brown

When his wife leaves for a visit with her mother, a young man is thrust into cahoots with gangsters …

—VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever

Did you know?

Cahoot is used almost exclusively in the phrase "in cahoots," which means "in an alliance or partnership." In most contexts, it describes the conspiring activity of people up to no good. (There's also the rare idiom go cahoots, meaning "to enter into a partnership," as in "they went cahoots on a new restaurant.") "Cahoot" may derive from French cahute, meaning "cabin" or "hut," suggesting the notion of two or more people hidden away working together in secret. "Cahute" is believed to have been formed through the combination of two other words for cabins and huts, "cabane" and "hutte."

Examples of cahoot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That Bovary is urged on to exceed the ambit of his modest competence by his vain and snobbish wife, Emma—in cahoots with the publicity-seeking pharmacist—adds a layer of situational irony to what constitutes, prima facie, an abuse: Charles incised the skin. —Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 12 Sep. 2022

Erdogan, meanwhile, lambasted Kilicdaroglu as a quisling who is in cahoots with the West and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish separatist group that both Ankara and Washington consider a terrorist entity. —Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2023

The end of the movie offers a doozy of a shocker: Ray and Sam have actually been in cahoots the entire time. —Emlyn Travis, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2023

Related:Abbott says Biden in cahoots with cartels, White House says Texas border force adds chaos The legislation proposal still grants more power and responsibility over border operations to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has made border security a top issue over recent years. —Aarón Torres, Dallas News, 10 May 2023

Word History

Etymology

perhaps from French cahute cabin, hut

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

cahoot

noun

ca·​hoot

kə-ˈhüt

informal

: partnership

—usually used in plural in the phrase in cahoots