MAGIC WORDS • Magic trick "Poof! Like a magic trick on a stage." -- John Katzenbach, The Madman's Tale (2004) "With a poof, like an evil magician's trick, the door was filled with a luminous glow." -- Julie Johnston, Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me (1995) "Like she had just appeared -- or was disappearing, which was it? -- into or out of smoke, poof, magic, like some trick." -- Carolyn Coman, What Jamie Saw (1995) "Dalton flicked his hand like a magician going poof." -- Ralph Wetterhahn, Shadowmakers (2002) "A poof of magic, like the magician you'd hired for my sixth birthday with his tricks of transformation." -- Constance Warloe, From Daughters & Sons to Fathers: What I've Never Said (2001) • Magic word "What are you . . . some type of magician or something? You waiting on some 'magic-poof ' or something?" -- Akil, From Niggas to Gods, Vol. II (1996) "[J]ust as a magician says 'Poof!' when something vanishes . . ." -- Jo anna M. Lund, The Arthritis Healthy Exchanges Cookbook (1998) "Poof. That's a spell word, magicians go 'poof.'" -- Tom Donaghy, Northeast Local (1996) "Sometimes they appear out of nowhere and vanish, as if a magician said, 'Poof.'" -- Terry Lynn Taylor, Answers from the Angels (199 ) "'Poof,' he said, waving his magic wand." -- Henry Winkler, Day of the Iguana (200 ) "Poof, I'll make you disappear." -- Harlan Coben, Gone for Good (200 ) "'poof!' The magician reached into a chalice by his side and dashed a pellet into a pewter dish; a smoky cloud smudged the air." -- Daniel McBain, Art Roebuck Comes to Born with a Tooth (199 ) • Offensive slang for an effeminate man "Holding them out, she turned a circle while the diamond clasp exploded with light. 'Where do they come from? Do you just picture them in your mind and . . . poof ?' 'Poof ?' He decided she hadn't meant that as an insult." -- Nora Roberts, A Little Magic (1998) • Presto-chango -- Randy Wayne White, Twelve Mile Limit (2002) • Puff of smoke, powder, or dust -- Brady Udall, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (2002) "[H]e'd tried to disappear. Displace himself outside his body. Poof. Puff of smoke." -- Jewell Parker Rhodes, Magic City (1997) "[P]oof, like smoke . . ." -- Edward Hays, The Passionate Troubadour (2004) "She laughs triumphantly, then disappears in a poof of smoke." -- Hillary DePiano, The Love of Three Oranges (200 ) "A Wizard waved her wand, and said some words, / and then, presto . . . poof of smoke . . . the ugly frog discovered that he was really . . . / A handsome Prince." -- L. Michael Hall, Communication Magic (2001)