voodoo

noun, plural voo·doos.

1. Also vodun. a polytheistic religion practiced chiefly by West Indians, deriving principally from African cult worship and containing elements borrowed from the Catholic religion.
2. a person who practices this religion.
3. a fetish or other object of voodoo worship.
4. a group of magical and ecstatic rites associated with voodoo.
5. (not in technical use) black magic; sorcery.

adjective

6. of, pertaining to, associated with, or practicing voodoo.
7. Informal. characterized by deceptively simple, almost as if magical, solutions or ideas: voodoo economics.

verb (used with object), voo·dooed, voo·doo·ing.

8. to affect by voodoo sorcery.

noun plural -doos

1. Also called: voodooism a religious cult involving witchcraft and communication by trance with ancestors and animistic deities, common in Haiti and other Caribbean islands
2. a person who practises voodoo
3. a charm, spell, or fetish involved in voodoo worship and ritual

adjective

4. relating to or associated with voodoo

verb -doos, -dooing or -dooed

5. (tr) to affect by or as if by the power of voodoo

n.

religious witchcraft of Haiti and Southern U.S., ultimately of African origin, 1850, from Louisiana French voudou, from a W.African language (e.g. Ewe and Fon vodu “spirit, demon, deity,” also Vandoo, supposedly the name of an African deity, from a language of Dahomey). Cf. vodun “fetish connected with snake worship in Dahomey,” said to be from vo “to be afraid,” or vo “harmful.” The verb is attested from 1880.

A form of animism (see also animism) involving trances and other rituals. Communication with the dead is a principal feature of voodoo. It is most common in the nations of the Caribbean Sea, especially Haiti, where people sometimes mingle voodoo and Christian practices.