Hoodoo
//ˈhuːduː// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A set of spiritual practices and traditions created and concealed from slave-owners by enslaved Africans in North America, based on traditional African beliefs. uncountable
- 2 something believed to bring bad luck wordnet
- 3 A practitioner of voodoo. US, countable, uncountable
- 4 a charm superstitiously believed to embody magical powers wordnet
- 5 Supernatural bad luck, or something or someone believed to bring bad luck. US, countable, uncountable
"The three men wondered whether they would find Colson at Taylor's Creek. They felt that a hoodoo hung over the place."
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- 6 a practitioner of voodoo wordnet
- 7 A tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of arid basins and badlands. countable, uncountable
"It was even larger than the mirage made it look—a dozen miles across and a thousand feet deep, with fins and towers and hoodoos like observation posts, mesas and minor buttes, springs flowing brightly in the red rock."
- 8 (geology) a column of weathered and unusually shaped rock wordnet
Verb
- 1 To jinx; to bring bad luck or misfortune to. transitive
- 2 bring bad luck; be a source of misfortune wordnet
Example
More examples"The three men wondered whether they would find Colson at Taylor's Creek. They felt that a hoodoo hung over the place."
Etymology
Apparently an alteration of voodoo.
Related phrases
More for "hoodoo"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.