Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the effect of a given drug.

1920		H.C. Witwer Kid Scanlon 138: It braced him like a charge of hop.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 44: They bought some junk from a cat in the park, but it was real beat stuff (highly adulterated) and they couldn’t even get a charge.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 60: charge (1) the sudden, euphoric onset of the effects of an opiate drug following injection.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 175: Rivaling the vocabulary used to describe pills and marijuana was that used to describe the effects of the drugs themselves – from the first ‘rush’ to the last ‘charge’.

2. an injection of a narcotic drug.

1925		D. Hammett ‘Corkscrew’ Story Omnibus (1966) 232: A minute later he was carrying a charge over to the hypo.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 206: The service is getting pretty bad when a man has to knock his skull on the floor to get a charge of M.
1955		P. Rabe Benny Muscles In (2004) 251: She needs one more charge.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 48: Big Step cut off his supply and if he doesn’t fold he’ll knock off somebody to get a charge.

3. (also charger) drugs in general, spec. marijuana; thus charge party, a party where marijuana is smoked.

1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 52: Charge is marijuana.
1949		‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 34: ‘You ever smoke dream-stuff?’ ‘Charge?’ ‘Yeah.’.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 9: Good old charge - curse it. It’s kicked me and whipped me and brought me here/ Yet i can’t get away from it.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 142: [of cannabis] The geezers who are doing a bit of bird for smokeing charge.
1959		F. Norman Stand on Me 17: I once knew a bird who went through sixteen geezers in one night. Mind you this was at a charge party so I suppose she had some excuse.
1960		T. Southern ‘Red-dirt Marijuana’ in Southern (1973) 11: He call it ‘charge’, too. Sho’. Them’s slang names.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) : ‘Do you smoke?’ [...] She gave a girlish giggle. ‘No, silly, not straight ones. Charge’.
1965		S. Selvon Housing Lark 58: ‘I have some chargers here, you want to try one?’ [...] Poor always anxious to get company to smoke weed.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1983		K. Hudson Dict. of the Teenage Revolution 36: Charge. [...] Marijuana.
1988		S. Selvon Eldorado West One 81: Big City and Bart been smoking chargers and both of them in a evil mood.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 5: Charge — Marijuana.
2023		Twitter 12 Jan. 🌐 the afternoon siesta; a lump of Moroccan charge, mint tea and Tommy McCook's saxophone caressing the ears, perfect.

4. a thrill, a feeling of excitement or satisfaction; thus get a charge out of.

1951		S.J. Perelman New Yorker 3 Mar. 28: What kind of an old creep’d get a charge out of this stuff? [W&F].
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 422: They like to take young guys like you and make them queer too. They get a charge out of that.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 76: Whenever I start stealing, boy, I dig a hell of a charge out of it. I dig a fantastic charge!
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 198: What a charge! He’d come in his fucking pants!
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 93: Are you one of those nuts that get more charge out of looking at a naked woman than screwing her?
1992		R. Price Clockers 24: He used to savor the charge he felt whenever Rodney would roll in.

5. (Aus.) a glass of liquor, esp. spirits.

1981

A. Weller Day of the Dog 2: Stay and have a charge with us.

6. a feeling of amusement.

2000

G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 59: Vance’s friends got a big charge out of it. Vance’s dad, the Vietnam vet and mail carrier — with that combo, he had to be some kind of wack job, right?