hoodoo [of African origin, related to voodoo] Edit

  • 1 n. something associated with bad luck, as an evil, malignant spell.

      • 1892  An Indian woman in the Sioux camp south of town recently gave birth to a child with two heads . . . A dog feast to counteract the "hoodoo" was held on the day following.Bibliography
      • 1932  The hoodoo that seemed to wait on Captain Knight was already at work, for the want of a sailing vessel seriously crippled his movements.Bibliography

    • 2 † n. a person of thing that brings bad luck; a jinx or Jonah.

        • 1913  Hoodoo, something that brings bad luck; the opposite of mascot.Bibliography
        • 1924  Need we wonder, then, that Jake got it into his head that Jacko was a "hoodoo," as he called it?Bibliography

      • 3 † n. a curiously-shaped pillar of clay, or cemented gravel, or other material, caused by erosion.

        See also: demoiselle (and picture)  

          • c1902  The gnomes, called in trappers' vernacular "hoodoos" great pillars of sandstone higher than a house, left standing in valleys by prehistoric floods--were to the Crows and Blackfeet petrified giants that only awakened at night to hurl down rocks on intruding mortals.Bibliography
          • 1793  (1801)  [The banks were here composed of high white cliffs, crowned with pinnacles in very grotesque shapes.]Bibliography
          • 1940  This similarity extends even to such peculiar phenomena as the presence in Jasper Park of a group of hot springs of medicinal value, and earth pillars or "hoodoos" similar to those at Banff.Bibliography
          • 1962  Approximately 500 feet across the highway [8 miles east of Drumheller] the fascinating Hoodoos can be seen and examined.Bibliography