List. Glossary. Junky. WilliamSBurroughs.

Source: Junky: The definitive text of Junk. PenguinModernClassics edition.

Jivetalk is used more in connextion with marijuana than with junk. In the past few years, however, the use of junk has spread into "hip", or "jivetalking" circles, and junklingo has, to some extent, merged with "jivetalk". For example, "Are you anywhere?" can mean "Do you have any junk or weed on your person?" Jivetalk always refers to more than one level of fact. "Are you anywhere?" can also refer to your psychiccondition: "Are you holding psychically?"

1.     Are you anywhere? Are you holding?: Do you have any junk or weed on you?

2.     Beat: To take someone's money. e.g. addictA says that he will buy junk for addcitB, but keeps the money instead. AddcitA has "beat" addcitB for the money.

3.     Benny: Benzedrine. It can also mean overcoat.

4.     Bring down, Drag: The opposite of high. Depressing.

5.     Brownstuff, Mud: Opium.

6.     Burndown: To overdo or run into the ground? Certain restaurants are used so much by junkies as meetingplaces that the restaurants gets known to the police. Then the restaurant is "burned down".

7.     Burningdownhabit. Oilburnerhabit: A heavy habit.

8.     C. Coke. Charge. Charly: Cocaine.

9.     Caps: Capsules of heroin.

10. Cat: A man.

11. Chick: A woman.

12. 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 for a month. Then he gets the "chucks" and eats everything in sight.

13. 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.

14. Coldturkey: To quit using suddenly and completely with no gradual reduction of the dose. Almost always involuntary.

15. Collar: Strip of paper wrapped around a dropper to make a tight fit with a needle.

16. Come on: The way someone acts, his general manner and way of approaching others.

17. Come up: A lush walking up while he is being robbed.

18. Cook: To dissolve junk in water heated in a spoon or other container.

19. Cop: To pass a cap of junk to someone. To hold out a hand for a cap.

20. Copperjitters: Exaggerated fear of cops. When you have the copperjitters, everybody looks like a cop.

21. Croaker: A doctor.

22. Dig: To size up. To understand. To like or enjoy.

23. Fey: White.

24. Fivetwentynine: Fivemonths and twentyninedays. This is the term in the workhouse that a lushworker receives for "jostling". If a detective sees a lushworker approach or touch a lush, he places a "jostling" charge.

25. Flop: Drunk passed out on a subwaystationbench.

26. G: One grain. Morphine is the standard for junkmeasurement. Onehalf grain of morphine is one "fix". A capsule of heroine should contain at least the equivalent of 1/2 grain of morphine. Heroin is seven times as strong as morphine.

27. Gold: Money.

28. H. Horse. Henry: Heroin.

29. Habit: A junkhabit. It takes at least a month of dailyuse to get a needle habit, twomonths for a smokinghabit, fourmonths for an eatinghabit.

30. Heat. Fuzz.: Law. Cops. The police.

31. Heavy: Junk, as opposed to marijuana.

32. Hep. Hip: Someone who knows the score. Someone who understands "jivetalk". 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.

33. 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.

34. Hog: Anyone who uses more junk than you do. To use over fivegrains per day puts a user in the hogclass.

35. Hook: Lushworkers usually work in pairs. One lushworker covers his partner with a newspaper, while the other goes throug the lush's pockets. The one who covers the other is the "hook".

36. Hooked: To get a habit.

37. Hot. Uncool: Somebody liable to attract attention from theLaw. A place watched by theLaw.

38. Hotshot: Poison, usually strychnine, passed to an addict as junk. The peddler sometimes slips a hotshot to an addict because the addict is giving information to theLaw.

39. The hyper. The bill.: A shortchange racket.

40. John: Someone who keeps a woman and spends money on her.

41. Joybang: An occasional shot by someone who does not have a habit.

42. Kick: A word with several meanings. It can mean the effect of a drug or a mood brought on 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 looking at things so that the man who is "on kicks" sees things from a special angle.

43. Kick a habit

44. Lay on: Give

45. Loaded. On the nod.: Full of junk.

46. Lushworker: A thief who specialises in robbing drunks on the subway.

47. M. MS.: Morphine. MS stands for MorphineSulphate, which is the morphinesalt most commonly used in theUS.

48. Mainline: Vein, a vein injection.

49. Making cars: Breaking into parkedcars and stealing the contents.

50. Mark: Someone easy to rob, like a drunk with a roll of money.

51. Meet: An appointment, usually between peddler and customer.

52. Nembies. Goofballs. Yellowjackets.: Nembutalcapsules. Nembutal is a barbiturate used by junkies "to take the edge off" when they can't get junk.

53. PG.: 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. PG can be injected intravenously after burning out the alcohol and straining out the camphor.

54. The people: Narcoticsagents. A NewOrleans [NOLA] expression.

55. Pickup: To use. Generally refers to weed. But you can "pick up" on nembies, lush, or junk.

56. Piece: Gun.

57. Pigeon. Fink. Rat.

58. Plant. Stash: To hide something, usually junk, or an "outfit".

59. Poke: Wallet.

60. Pop. Bang. Shot. Fix.

61. Popcorn: Someone with a legitimate job, as opposed to a "hustler" or thief.

62. Pusher. Peddler. TheMan.: Junk seller. "TheMan" is another NewOrleans [NOLA] expression, and can also refer to a narcoticsagent.

63. Put down a hyper or routine: To give someone a story, to persuade, or con someone.

64. Put your hand out.: To go through a lush's pockets.

65. Score

66. Serve. Take care of.: To sell junk to a user.

67. Shake. Rumble.: Search by theLaw.

68. Skin: Skininjection.

69. Sick. Gaping. Yenning.: Sickness caused by lack of junk.

70. Smash: Change. Money. Coins.

71. Square: The opposite of hip. Someone who does not understand the jive.

72. Spade: A negro.

73. Speedball: Cocained mixed with morphien or heroin.

74. Spike: Needle.

75. Stuff. Junk.: General terms for opium and all derivatives of opium: morphine, heroin, dilaudid, pantopon, codeine, dionine.

76. Take a fall: To get arrested.

77. Teahead. Head. Viper: User of marijuana.

78. Tieup: Tie, or handkerchief, used as a tourniquet for a vein shot.

79. User. Hyp. Junkie. Junker. Shmecker.: Junkaddict.

80. Weed. Tea. Gage. Grass. Greefa. Muggles. Pot. Hash.

81. Whitestuff: Morphine, or heroine, as opposed to "brown stuff".

82. Working the hole: Lushworking.

83. Works. Outfit. Joint.: A user's outfit for injecting junk. Consists of an eyedropper, hyperdermicneedle, strip of paper to fit the dropper tight into the needle, and a spoon or other container in which to dissolve the junk.

84. Write: To write a narcotic prescription. To "make a croaker for a script" means to persuade a doctor to write a prescription for junk.

85. Wrong: Term used to describe an informer.

86. Yenpox: Ash of opium after the opium has been smoked. Yenpox contains about the same morphine content as opium before smoking. It can be eaten with hot coffee, or dissolve in water and injected intravenously.

  It should be understood that the meaning of these words are subject to rapid changes, and that a word has one "hip" meaning one year may have another the next. The "hip" sensibility mutates. For example, "fey" means not only white, but fated or demoniac. Not only do the words change meanings but meanings vary locally at the same time. A final glossary, therefore, cannot be made of words whose intentions are fugitive.