hoodoo

[hoo-doo]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hoodoo ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural hoo·doos.

voodoo.

bad luck.

a person or thing that brings bad luck.

Geology. a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.

verb (used with object), hoo·dooed, hoo·doo·ing.

to bring or cause bad luck to.

Origin of hoodoo

1870–75, Americanism; apparently var of voodoo

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hoodoo

bedevil, bewitch, hex, curse, damn, charm, enchant, condemn

Examples from the Web for hoodoo

Contemporary Examples of hoodoo

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 Huma
Michael Tomasky
July 25, 2013

Historical Examples of hoodoo

But Rockland had a pitcher who more than once proved a hoodoo for Camden.
Frank Merriwell's Cruise
Burt L. Standish
Well, if this hasn't been a hoodoo cruise from Boston, I don't know a thing!
Frank Merriwell's Cruise
Burt L. Standish
"Tell us a story about a hoodoo, Uncle Jonah," Hortense begged.
The Cat in Grandfather's House
Carl Henry Grabo
If it didn't go it was a hoodoo—a black shadow—and he wanted no more to do with it.
Jennie Gerhardt
Theodore Dreiser
There's got to be an end to this hoodoo business in my house.
The Faith Healer
William Vaughn Moody

British Dictionary definitions for hoodoo

hoodoo

noun plural -doos

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

verb -doos, -dooing or -dooed

(tr) informal to bring bad luck to

Derived Formshoodooism, noun

Word Origin for hoodoo

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

"one who practices voodoo," 1870, American English, probably an alteration of voodoo. Meaning "something that causes or brings bad luck" is attested from 1880.