Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: In cahoots

The phrase in cahoots has a slightly "Old West" ring to me, although that might simply be due to an overabundance of old-time black-and-white TV Western-watching from the early 1960s. That aside, I have no idea what a single cahoot is. Do you?
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According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of cahoot is "partnership, league." However I could probably be forgiven for wondering if the singular form even exists:

Cahoot is used almost exclusively in the phrase "in cahoots," which means "in an alliance or partnership." In most contexts, it describes the conspiring activity of people up to no good. (There's also the rare idiom go cahoots, meaning "to enter into a partnership," as in "they went cahoots on a new restaurant.") "Cahoot" may derive from French cahute, meaning "cabin" or "hut," suggesting the notion of two or more people hidden away working together in secret. "Cahute" is believed to have been formed through the combination of two other words for cabins and huts, "cabane" and "hutte."

M-W claims the term first appeared in 1827. The Online Etymological Dictionary begs to differ in time frame, putting first use at 1829 (well, let's not quibble over a couple of years) and also suggests a different origin, to wit:

... U.S. sources [Bartlett] credit it to French cohorte (see cohort), which is said to have had a sense of "companions, confederates."

If you wish to dig a little deeper into the mysterious origin of cahoot(s), with early examples of use, I recommend checking out this post of The Grammarphobia Blog.

In any case, the phrase in cahoots certainly smacks of skulduggery to me and... hmmmm... I do believe I just stumbled upon next week's slang-o-rama topic...

Is this mob of meerkats in cahoots? Maybe.
Image by Rhulk G. from Pixabay