hoodoos

Noun

hoodoo (countable and uncountable, plural hoodoos)

1. (uncountable) A set of spiritual practices and traditions created and concealed from slave-owners by enslaved Africans in North America, based on traditional African beliefs.
2. (US) A practitioner of voodoo.
3. (US) Supernatural bad luck, or something or someone believed to bring bad luck.
   • The three men wondered whether they would find Colson at Taylor's Creek. They felt that a hoodoo hung over the place.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 60
4. A tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of arid basins and badlands.
   • 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.2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 71

   Synonyms:

   tent rock, fairy chimney, earth pyramid

See all 5 meanings of hoodoo