spliff - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Jamaican Creole, possibly a blend of split, referring to the ready-made wrap, + whiff, referring to the smell of the smoke.[1]

spliff (plural spliffs)

  1. (slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Jamaica) A cannabis cigarette.
    smoke a spliff
    • 1992, Victor Headley, Yardie‎[2], New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, published 1993, page 167:
      Pablo switched off the wipers and struck a match to light the spliff he had just finished building.
    • 2001, Niall Griffiths, Sheepshagger‎[3], New York: Thomas Dunne, published 2002, page 104:
      Danny takes another toke on the spliff and then passes it over to Griff, who accepts it and draws deep on it and then points with the lit end across the room at Gwenno like some strange weatherman indicating a pocket of high pressure.
    • 2016, Kei Miller, “Chapter 1”, in Augustown, New York: Pantheon, pages 14–15:
      “Well, well, well,” Ma Taffy says, sitting back and returning the spliff to her mouth. She exhales a cloud of ganja that envelops herself and the boy.

a marijuana cigarette

spliff (third-person singular simple present spliffs, present participle spliffing, simple past and past participle spliffed)

  1. (rare) To smoke a spliff.

  2. ^ Richard Allsopp and Jeannette Allsopp (editors), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 524.[1]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

spliff (plural **spliff dem, quantified **spliff)

  1. A conical marijuana cigarette; a joint; a spliff.
    Yuh can drink a beer but don't yuh dare bun a spliff.
    You can have a beer but don't you dare smoke a joint.