hoodoo

noun

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, countable, uncountable)A practitioner of voodoo.
3. (US, countable, uncountable)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.”

4. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “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.”

verb

1. (transitive)To jinx; to bring bad luck or misfortune to.