cahoots
/kəˈhuːts
/plural noun (in phrase in cahoots) informal
Colluding or conspiring together secretly: the area is dominated by guerrillas in cahoots with drug traffickers...
- Together they connive in cahoots and scheme to create the world's worst musical, a guaranteed catastrophic dog of a show.
- With their regular penchant for not only making political mischief, they now appear to be in cahoots together by dispatching letters which do not appear to make any rational sense.
- The mystical and the managerial are secretly in cahoots.
Synonyms
in league, colluding, in collusion, conspiring, conniving, collaborating, hand in glove, allied, in alliance
Origin
Early 19th century (originally US): of unknown origin.
To be in cahoots with someone is to be working in collusion with them. It is an American expression, recorded in the early 19th century in the neutral sense of ‘in league or partnership’. Nowadays the expression invariably suggests dishonesty and conspiracy. Where cahoots comes from is uncertain. It might derive from the French word cahute, meaning ‘a hut or cabin’, with the idea of plotting together in an intimate closed environment. Or it may be an alteration of cohort (see courteous) based on the notion of a group of people working closely together.