hophead
(ˈhɒphɛd)
1. [f. hop n.1 4 + head n.1 7 e.] An opium-smoker; a drug-addict. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
| 1911 C. B. Chrysler White Slavery xi. 89 Opium smokers, ‘hop fiends’ or ‘hop heads’, as they are called, are the fiercest of all the White Slavers. 1915 G. Bronson-Howard God's Man ii. 130, I told Beau to hunt up a skirt before, but you know these hop-heads—always putting things off. 1931 E. Wallace On the Spot ii. 21 A hop-head will spill his friends' secrets to buy more hop. 1934 D. Hammett Thin Man xi. 72 ‘What's a junkie?’ she asked. ‘Hop-head.’ 1947 E. E. Cummings Let. 21 Sept. (1969) 180 Can someone imagine what any moujik coolie or hophead of any crevice of the Orient would sense, upon receiving such a gospel? 1959 J. Christopher Scent of White Poppies ix. 144 Did you ever see a hophead when he's been kept short of what he wants? 1973 H. Nielsen Severed Key vii. 75 I'll mail the letter to that hophead lawyer. |
2. [hop n.1 1 b.] A drunkard, a tippler. N.Z. slang.
| [1942 N.Z.E.F. Times 17 Aug. 16/3 (caption) Private Harry Hophead seen leaving Shepheards after a brief visit (very).] 1948 D. Ballantyne Cunninghams (1963) ii. ix. 166 It's Betty that can't hold the liquor... She's a real lily of a hophead. 1952 Landfall VI. 208 Among young people greetings like ‘Hophead’..are accepted as flattery. |