hoodoo
[hoo-doo]
- voodoo.
- bad luck.
- a person or thing that brings bad luck.
- Geology. a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.
Show More
- to bring or cause bad luck to.
Show More
Origin of hoodoo
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hoodoo
Contemporary Examples
Created more jobs than any modern president, in the process showing people that trickle-down economics was hoodoo.
One’s a Weiner, the Other a Hero: Why Bill and Hillary Have Nothing in Common With Anthony and HumaMichael Tomasky
July 25, 2013
Historical Examples
But Rockland had a pitcher who more than once proved a hoodoo for Camden.
Frank Merriwell's CruiseBurt L. Standish
Well, if this hasn't been a hoodoo cruise from Boston, I don't know a thing!
Frank Merriwell's CruiseBurt L. Standish
"Tell us a story about a hoodoo, Uncle Jonah," Hortense begged.
The Cat in Grandfather's HouseCarl Henry Grabo
If it didn't go it was a hoodoo—a black shadow—and he wanted no more to do with it.
Jennie GerhardtTheodore Dreiser
There's got to be an end to this hoodoo business in my house.
The Faith HealerWilliam Vaughn Moody
hoodoo
- a variant of voodoo
- informal a person or thing that brings bad luck
- informal bad luck
- (in the western US and Canada) a strangely shaped column of rock
Show More
- (tr) informal to bring bad luck to
Show More
Word Origin
C19: variant of voodoo
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hoodoo
n.
"one who practices voodoo," 1870, American English, probably an alteration of voodoo. Meaning "something that causes or brings bad luck" is attested from 1880.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper