voodoo
/ˈvuːduː
/noun [mass noun]
1A black religious cult practised in the Caribbean and the southern US, combining elements of Roman Catholic ritual with traditional African magical and religious rites, and characterized by sorcery and spirit possession: they can use voodoo to help people if you understand voodoo you can talk to these spirits [as modifier]: a voodoo doll a voodoo priest...
- But it also plays with core elements of the Haitian voodoo tradition, of Caribbean magic, and of African rituals as well.
- The West African and trans-Caribbean influences in the South are best seen in spiritual ceremonies that evoke elements from voodoo rituals.
- These beliefs in establishing an actual connection with the world beyond death are closer to the beliefs of African-based religions such as voodoo than to those of Christianity.
1.1 [count noun] A person skilled in voodoo.
verb (voodoos, voodooing, voodooed) [with object]
Affect (someone) by the practice of voodoo: someone had voodooed her...
- ‘So let me get this straight,’ I said through hot tears, ‘you've been… voodooing the people around you, to get your way.’
Derivatives
voodooism
- I wanted the facts of the book to stand up on their own, so I had to read a lot about lighthouses, the legacy of slavery in Scotland and about the religions of voodooism and Gnosticism.
- The influx of black slaves brought with it a culture from the African continent including voodooism, still widely practised today.
voodooist
- Very little is known about Pritchard, Marie Laveau, or any other 19 th-century voodooists.
- There's a quite effective twist ending where the identity of the real voodooist is revealed, even if this doesn't really make sense in terms of motivation.
- To a voodooist, what a Christian might refer to as the soul, comes in two parts.
Origin
Early 19th century: from Louisiana French, from Kwa vodũ.