Glossary
"Jive talk" is used more in connection with marijuana than with junk. In the past few years however, the use of junk has spread into "hip", or "jive talking" circles, and junk lingo has to some extent, merged with "jive talk." For example, "Are you
anywhere?" can mean "Do you have any junk or weed on your person?" Jive talk always refers to more than one level of fact. "Are you anywhere?" can also refer to your psychic condition: "Are you holding psychically?"
Are you anywhere? Are you holding? ...Do you have any junk or weed on you?
Beat ...To take someone's money. For example, addict A says he will buy junk for addict B but keeps the money instead. Addict A has "beat" addict B for the money.
Benny ...Benzedrine. It can also mean overcoat.
Bring down, Drag ...The opposite of high. Depressing.
Brown stuff, or Mud ...Opium.
Burn Down ...To overdo or run into the ground. Certain restaurants are used so much by junkies as meeting-places that the restaurant gets known to the police. Then the restaurant is "burned down."
Burning down habit, an Oil burner habit ...A heavy habit.
C, Coke,Charge,Charly ...Cocaine.
Caps ...Capsules of Heroin.
Cat ...A man.
Chick ...A Woman.
Chucks ...Excessive hunger, often for sweets. This comes on an addict when he has kicked his habit far enough so that he starts to eat. When an addict is cut off the junk, he can't eat for several days. I have seen addicts who did not eat fo
r a month. Then he gets the "chucks" and eats everything in sight.
Clean ...A user is clean if he does not have any junk on his person or premises in the event of a search by the law.
Cold Turkey ...To quit using suddenly and completely with no gradual reduction of the dose. Almost always involuntary.
Collar ...Strip of paper wrapped around a dropper to make a tight fit with a needle.
Come on ...The way someone acts, his general manner and way of approaching others.
Come up ...A lush waking up while he's being robbed.
Cook ...To dissolve junk in water heated in a spoon or other container.
Cop ...To pass a cap of junk to someone; to hold out a hand for a cap.
Copper jitters ...Exaggerated fear of cops. When you have the copper jitters, everybody looks like a cop.
Croaker ...a doctor.
Dig ...To size up, to understand, to like, or enjoy.
Fey ...White.
Five-twenty-nine ...Five months and twenty-nine days. This is the term in the workhouse that a lush-worker receives for "jostling." If a detective sees a lush-worker approach or touch a lush, he places a "jostling" charge.
Flop ...Drunk passed out on a subway station bench.
G ...One grain. Morphine is the standard for junk measurement. One-half grain of morphine is one "fix." A capsule of heroin should contain at least the equivalent of 1/2 grain of morphine. Heroin is seven times as strong as morphine.
Gold ...Money.
H, Horse, Henry ...Heroin.
Habit ... A junk habit. It takes at least a month of daily use to get a needle habit, two months for a smoking habit, four months for an eating habit.
Heavy ...Junk as opposed to Marijuana.
Hep or Hip ...Someone who knows the score. Someone who understands "jive talk." Someone who is "with it." The expression is not subject to definition because, if you don't "dig" what it means, no one can ever tell you.
High ... Feeling good, in a state of euphoria. You can be high on benny, weed, lush, nutmeg, ammonia (the scrubwoman's kick). You can be high without any chemical boot, just feeling good.
Hog ...Anyone who uses more junk than you do. To use over five grains per day puts a user in the hog class.
Hook ...Lush-workers usually work in pairs. One lush-worker covers his partner with a newspaper, while the other goes through the lush's pockets. The one who covers the other is the "hook."
Hooked ...To get a habit.
Hot, Uncool ...Somebody liable to attract attention from the law. A place watched by the law.
Hot Shot ...Poison, usually strychnine, passed to an addict as junk. The peddler sometimes slips a hot shot to an addict because the addict is giving information to the law.
The Hype, The bill ...A short-change racket.
John ...Someone who keeps a woman and spends money on her.
Joy bang ...An occasional shot by someone who does not have a habit.
Kick ... A word with several meanings. It can mean the effect of a drug or a mood brought by some place, or person. "This bar gives me bad kicks." "This bar depresses me." You can also be on "good kicks." A kick is also a special way of look
ing at things so that the man who is "on kicks" sees things from a special angle.
Kick a habit ...To quit using junk and get over a habit.
Lay on ...Give.
Loaded, on the nod ...Full of junk.
Lush-worker ...A thief who specializes in robbing drunks on the subway.
M.,M.S. ...Morphine, M.S. stands for Morphine Sulphate which is the morphine salt most commonly used in the U.S.
Main Line ...Vein, a vein injection.
Making Cars ...Breaking into parked cars and stealing the contents.
Mark ...Someone easy to rob, like a drunk with a role of money.
Meet ...An appointment, usually between peddler and costumer.
Nembies, Goof Balls, Yellow Jackets ...Nembutal capsules. Nembutal is a barbiturate used by junkies "to take the edge off" when they can't get junk.
P.G. ... Paregoric. A weak, camphorated tincture of opium, two grains to the ounce. Two ounces will fix a sick addict. It can be bought without prescription in some states. P.G. can be injected intravenously after burning out the alcohol and
straining out the Camphor.
The People ...Narcotic agents. Another New Orleans expression.
Pickup ...To use. Generally refers to weed. But you can "pickup" on nembies, lush, or junk.
Piece ...Gun.
Pigeon, Fink, Rat ...Informer.
Plant, Stash ...To hide something, usually junk, or an "outfit."
Poke ...Wallet.
Pop, Bang, Shot, Fix ...Injection of junk.
Pop Corn ...Someone with a legitimite job, as opposed to a "hustler" or thief.
Pusher, Peddler, "The Man" ...Junk seller. "The Man" is a New Orleans expression, and can also refer to a narcotics agent.
Put Down a hype or routin ...To give someone a story, to persuade, or con someone.
Put your hand out ...to go through a lush's pockets.
Score ...To buy weed or marijuana.
Serve, take care of ...To sell junk tu a user.
Shake, Rumble ...search by the law.
Skin ...Skin injection.
Sick, Gaping, Yenning ...sickness caused by lack of junk.
Smash ...Change, money, coins.
Square ...The opposite of hip. Someone who does not understand the jive.
Spade ...A negro.
Speed Ball ...Cocaine mixed with morphine or Heroin.
Spike ...Needle.
Stuff, Junk ...General term for opium and all derivates of opium.: Morphine, Heroin, Diladaud, Pantopon, codeine, dionine.
Take a fall ...To get arrested.
Tea head, head, viper ...User of Marijuana.
Tie-up ...Tie, or handkerchief, used as a tourniquet for a vein shot.
User, Hype, Junky, Junker, Schmecker ...Junk addict.
Weed, tea, gage, grass, greefa, muggles, pot, hash ...Marijuana, hashish.
White stuff ...Morphine, or heroin, as opposed to "Brown Stuff."
Working the hole ...Lush-working.
Works, Outfit, Joint ...A user's outfit for injecting junk. Consists of an eyedropper, hypodermic needle, strip of paper to fit the dropper tight into the needle, and a spoon or other container in which to dissolve the junk.
Write ...To write a narcotic prescription. To "make a croaker for a script" means to persuade a doctor to write a prescription for junk.
Wrong ...Term used to describe an informer.
Yen Pox ...Ash of Opium after the Opium has been smoked. Yen Pox contains about the same Morphine content as opium before smoking. It can be eaten with hot coffee, or dissolved in water and injected intravenously.
It should be understood that the meanings of these words are
subject to rapid changes, and that a word that has one hip meaning one year may have another the next.
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