Abracadabra


a mystical word or expression used in incantations, on amulets, etc., as a magical means of warding off misfortune, harm, or illness.
any charm or incantation using nonsensical or supposedly magical words.
meaningless talk; gibberish; nonsense.
Contemporary Examples

Wei somehow slips in unnoticed, has a private tête-à-tête with the powers that be, and abracadabra, deal done.
China’s Financial Insider Huang Hung March 17, 2010

Chandelier, swimming pool, patient EKG, abracadabra, you are free.
Catastrophe in Verse Eliza Griswold April 20, 2011

The first entry is “abracadabra,” which at one time was an ancient code used by Egyptian priests, and ends with “Zoroastrianism.”
The Craziest Religions Benyamin Cohen July 23, 2010

Historical Examples

Meantime he was obliged to live in abracadabra, and make the best of it.
Yellow-Cap and Other Fairy-Stories For Children Julian Hawthorne

If my reader finds this bosh and abracadabra, all right for him.
Fantasia of the Unconscious D. H. Lawrence

And you ought not to leave Abra, for Abra only is abracadabra.
Yellow-Cap and Other Fairy-Stories For Children Julian Hawthorne

His Bolshevik abracadabra has seduced the workers of every race.
The Behavior of Crowds Everett Dean Martin

It is marvelous how science proceeds like witchcraft and alchemy, by means of an abracadabra which has no earthly sense.
Fantasia of the Unconscious D. H. Lawrence

“All this is abracadabra to me,” I replied quickly, in fear of a torrent.
Dariel R. D. Blackmore

And mumbling his “abracadabra” over the sand spread on a cloth before him, he took up his bamboo-stick and wrote therein––Khalid!
The Book of Khalid Ameen Rihani

interjection
a spoken formula, used esp by conjurors
noun
a word used in incantations, etc, considered to possess magic powers
gibberish; nonsense

magical formula, 1690s, from Latin (Q. Severus Sammonicus, 2c.), from Late Greek Abraxas, cabalistic or gnostic name for the supreme god, and thus a word of power. It was written out in a triangle shape and worn around the neck to ward off sickness, etc. Another magical word, from a mid-15c. writing, was ananizapta.

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