Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US drugs, also hyp) a hypodermic syringe or injection; thus hype kit, the equipment used for narcotic injections.

1910		in Adventure Nov. 186: I was filling a hyp [sic] with a new solution.
1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 28/1: HYPE. Hypodermic injection.
1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: hyp, n. Charge of dope.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 122/2: hype. The hypodermic needle used to inject narcotics.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 124: An eye-dropper hype in one cup of my bra and a bottle of dolaphine [...] in the other.
1952		Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ in AS XXVII:1 27: hype, n. 1. Hypodermic needle. 2. Drug addict.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 128: A homemade hype kit, composed of a piece of string for a tourniquet, a safety pin, a bent spoon, a wad of cotton batting, an eye-dropper and a needle.
a.1964		‘Honky-Tonk Bud’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 56: They pulled out two spikes, laid out two hypes, / And rolled some one-dollar-bill gees.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 88: He unwrapped two spikes, laid out two hyps, / And made up some dollar-bill gees.
1989		(con. 1920s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 184: She took the hype, she fixed him up, and she fixed herself up.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 72: Never mind that you shared a hype with him a hundred times.

2. (US drugs/Und., also hyp, hyp man) a heroin or morphine addict, any narcotics addict.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 306: Next down on the list is the ‘hype’ or morphine-user.
1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 248: ‘What have you got there?’ the Chief queried jokingly. ‘Looks like a hype.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 159: User, Hyp, Junkie, Junker, Shmecker . . . Junk addict.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 31: Carny hyp men have burned down the croakers of Texas.
1959		(con. c.1917) G. Duffy Warden’s Wife 93: He was skin and bone when he came in [i.e. to prison] [...] He was a ‘hype’.
1969		Cressey & Ward Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 824: Those who use pills on a repetitive or continuous basis are viewed as ‘drug store hyps’ or ‘pill freaks’ by heroin addicts.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 49: The only stench [...] that was worse than that cell block on a warm night was a sick ‘hype’.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 51: All the other hyps on the street [...] became aware that the three were addicts.
1973		K. Burkhart Women in Prison 3: I’ve watched about seventeen women go out of here after serving time for snuffing their babies, while hypes still sit here.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 176: The narcs who’d arrested the hype [...] had to let the guy go.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 13: Mexican brown heroin guaranteed to hitch any hype a ride on that tragic magic carpet.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 90: Local hypes copped in L.A. Local hypes rode the Heroin Highway.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] [Y]our standard midtown Scotch drinker didn’t want to be rubbin’ elbows with an uptown gutter hype.

3. (US pimp) a prostitute who works simply to support her narcotic addiction.

1971

T. Thackrey Thief 303: I’d had a broad with me [...] But I had sent her back to Galveston from St. Louis when I found out she was a hype.

4. (US drugs) narcotic drugs.

1997

Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 68: The keepers of the inn [i.e. a shooting gallery n.] guard the door, charging a buck or two for entry, maybe less if a fiend is willing to share some of the hype.

5. (US campus) a regular user of marijuana.

1997		Da Bomb Summer Supplement 8: Hype (n.) A marijuana addict.
1999		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.