hoodoo

plural hoodoos

1. uncountableA set of spiritual practices and traditions created and concealed from slave-owners by enslaved Africans in North America, based on traditional African beliefs.
2. UScountableuncountableA practitioner of voodoo.
3. UScountableuncountableSupernatural 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. countableuncountablegeographyA 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

   1 more example

   This park’s strange and beautiful rock formations were formed by the Yellowstone River and various streams that have cut through the rock over millions of years, carving out hoodoos, spires and caprocks. The name Makoshika comes from a Lakota word for badlands.

   2018 July 17, Autumn Spanne, “Check out these crazy rock formations across the United States”, in CNN

   Synonyms: tent rock, fairy chimney, earth pyramid

present singular third person hoodoos · participle present hoodooing · participle past hoodooed · past hoodooed

1. transitiveTo jinx; to bring bad luck or misfortune to.