noun Informal.
- unethical behavior; deceit: When the bank teller bought an expensive car and house, they suspected there might be some hanky-panky going on.
- illicit sexual relations.
noun informal
- dubious or suspicious behaviour
- foolish behaviour or talk
- illicit sexual relations
also hanky panky, 1841, “trickery,” British slang, possibly a variant of hoky-poky “deception, fraud,” altered from hocus-pocus.