cahoot

Probably from French cahute. See cahoots.

cahoot (third-person singular simple present cahoots, present participle cahooting, simple past and past participle cahooted)

1. To act in partnership.
   • 2003 June 6, “Thinking Right: Iraq, Clintons”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

     […] argument that we shouldn't be doing it, and if we do we'll fail, and if we succeed, our leaders were lying, tricking and cahooting with Halliburton?

cahoot (plural cahoots)

1. (uncommon) A group of people working together (usually for an illicit purpose)
   • 1827 September 15, The Wanderer, “Barney Blinn”, in Norwalk Reporter and Huron Advertiser‎, Norwalk, OH, page 4:

     Gineral Government and the ministration are going in cahoot to undermine and overrule the undertakings of the free people of Georgia.

   • 1831 November 9, Natchez Gazette‎, Natchez, MS, page 3:

     Nay, we feel so pleasant a humour, at the recovery of the stolen articles, that we are really disposed to extend our forgiveness to the whole "Cahoot," the more particularly, as some of the suspected, have already "suffered in the flesh;"

2. (uncommon) An accomplice; a partner.
   • 1869, United States Congress, Congressional Globe‎, page 538:

     Fisk and his “cahoots” have got at cross purposes, and he has been put out of bed. Whether Fisk is rightly or wrongly out of bed is not for Congress to determine.

   • 1993, Mick Masson, Surviving the Dole Years: The 1930s, a Personal Story‎, page 108:

     This particular day he set the scene by arranging with his cahoots to clean up the local operators.

   • 2000, Suhas Chatterjee, A Socio Economic History of South Assam‎, page 98:

     Intelligent and power loving Indraprabha took the advantage and agreed to become his cahoot in return of political supremacy.

3. (US, uncommon) A company or partnership.

• cahoots

• OED 2nd edition 1989

• atchoo