voodoo

---

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈvuːduː/

Noun

voodoo

1. Any of a group of related religious practices found chiefly in and around the Caribbean, particularly in Haiti and Louisiana.
   • 2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books 2007, p. 13:

     You cannot understand Haitian Vodou as it is practised today without first knowing something about the culture from which it sprang, and the ways history has shaped religion, and vice versa.

2. The spiritual beliefs of the Ewe/Fon of West Africa, practiced chiefly in Benin and in the south of Togo.
3. (pejorative) Any sort of magical or irrational approach to a problem.

   I want a real explanation, not this statistical voodoo.

4. (dated) One who practices voodoo; a native sorcerer.
   • 1889, Longman's Magazine (volume 14, page 557)

     So a reporter of the Boston Herald (U.S.) has 'interviewed' a few local Voodoos. He has seen a dance round a boiling pot, seen some tomfoolery with spiders, and heard a lot of superstitious stories.

Synonyms

• (religion) voodooism

Translations

• French: vaudou
• German: Voodoo, Wodu
• Italian: voodoo, vudù, vudu
• Portuguese: vodu
• Russian: ву́ду
• Spanish: vudú

Verb

voodoo (voodoos, present participle voodooing; past and past participle voodooed)

1. To bewitch someone or something using voodoo

   He claimed his neighbor had voodooed him.

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002