jolt n.
1. in context of drink or drugs.
(a) (US drugs) a measure of a drug as taken by a user, esp. an injection of a narcotic; occas. of a non-recreational drug (see cit. 1930); thus overjolt
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 16: I wonder if I can bull this pill roller into selling me a jolt. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Limehouse Nights 19: He would take a jolt of opium at the place at the corner of Formosa Street. | |
| Black Candle 294: It was requisite that he take a ‘jolt’ of cocaine. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Truth (Brisbane) 22 June 12/3: Gradually she accustomed herself to three ‘shots’ or ‘jolts’ [of morphine] daily. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 136: That rat, Finnery, the trusty [...] has got a ton of it [i.e. morphine] out there to sell, but he wouldn’t give us a jolt if we had the horrors. | |
| (con. 1910s) A Corporal Once 296: They’ll slip him a big jolt of castor oil. | |
| Shadows of Men 213: When too destitute to ‘make a buy’ [...] he would seek other addicts and tell them marvelous tales until they would give him a ‘jolt’. | |
| Golden Spike 125: He was getting sick and needed a jolt. | |
| Howard Street 108: It was very weak stuff, he found, and he had to take an extra jolt just to get himself straight. | |
| Shaft 143: They had given her the jolt of the stuff that Charlie had brought. | |
| Skin Tight 133: Chemo [...] had rejected a general anaesthetic in favor of an old-fashioned intravenous jolt of Demerol. | |
| Corner (1998) 80: Curt sells, then gets his midday jolt at Blue’s. | |
 | Cutty one Rock (2005) 171: My brother liked to smoke a little weed first, and as the initial LSD rush was coming on, to enjoy a jolt of amyl nitrate. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 159: He could use another jolt, but was out of cocaine. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 128: I cooked up a batch of jungle juice and took three good jolts. |
(b) a stiff drink of spirits, esp. brandy, whisky or bourbon.
| Pardners (1912) 88: I [...] had my arm dressed and a big jolt of whisky. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Dinny on the Doorstep 83: That does mostly only be when she’ll have a few jolts of whiskey taken. | |
| This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 233: We’ll take you to some secluded nook and give you a wee jolt of Bourbon. | |
| ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 251: Mr. Conde gets a couple of jolts of the old grape. | |
| ‘Daughter of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I [...] sloshed a jolt of Scotch in a glass, made her dribble it down the hatch. | |
| Long Good-Bye 209: Wade came back with a bottle and a glass. He sat down on the couch and poured a stiff jolt and sucked it down. | |
| America’s Homosexual Underground 53: He’d poured another stiff jolt. | |
| (con. 1968) Citadel (1989) 67: Christ that’s good brandy. [...] Fucking stuff has got a real jolt. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] I took another jolt of vodka, a bigger one. | |
| Bad Sex on Speed 121: Only a real punk would wipe his mouth before taking a jolt off another man’s whiskey. | |
| Widespread Panic 24: [I] poured her two jolts of ’53 domestic. |
(c) (US) the effects of a drug or alcohol, a ‘kick’.
| Crucibles of Crime 121: They will use any substance which will give them the desired ‘kick’ or ‘jolt’. These drugs include cocaine, heroin. | |
| ‘Vicious Circle’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 35: Marijuana was candy to Turk. It never gave him a jolt. | |
| My Lovely Executioner (2006) 133: And then like a big, wonderful breath that unlimbers the cramp everywhere, when you get the jolt. | |
| Pimp 126: I was quivering like a joker in the hot seat at the first jolt. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). | |
| Suicide Hill 23: He counted twelve trays of stale sandwiches, and figured his Prolixin jolt had lasted four days. | |
| Permanent Midnight 251: I got a jolt that sent streams of smoke from my hair ends. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 13: Jolt — Strong reaction to drugs. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 9: I took two pops [of liquor]. [...] The jolt hit me [ibid.] 233: The juice [i.e. Dexedrine] jolt wore down. |
(d) as non-drug ext. of sense 2c, a thrill.
| Benny Muscles In (2004) 250: ‘That give you a jolt, huh?’ [...] ‘I get my jolts elsewhere,’ she said. ‘Almost anywhere else.’. |
2. (US Und.) a prison sentence, usu. with the number of years specified, e.g. a seven-year jolt; also used of a period spent in solitary confinement (see cite 1943).
| ‘The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew’ in From First to Last (1954) 75: Muller got a long jolt for the job; the Shine got a shorter one and escaped a little bit later on. | |
| Hop-Heads 25: Whenever I get a ‘jolt’ in the can (county jail) they make me ‘kick out’ my habit in the ‘tanks’. | |
| ‘They Can’t Do That’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 233: When you’ve just been framed by an upright judge / For a ten year jolt or so. | |
| Nobody Lives for Ever 218: ‘I done him a good turn in stir once; and he’s not the kind of guy who forgets. The good turn cost me a jolt in solitary’. | |
| Cry Tough! 28: Funny, that I got less of a jolt in the can than you got. | |
| Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 12: It was certain that Doc was getting a pardon on his second and last jolt. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 232: During his second jolt he started to master the prison techniques he would later perfect. | |
| Animal Factory 143: I’m scared shitless . . . I can’t stand another jolt. | |
| Muscle for the Wing 39: A loose nationwide cartel of sorts that kept in touch via three-to-five jolts and visitation privileges. | |
| Mr Blue 285: Had I done what Bobby did over the course of his criminal career, I would have spent my entire life in prison rather than a mere eighteen years in three jolts. | |
| (ref. to 1971) ‘Old Bailey’ Homeless in my Heart 179: Beginning to learn what is meant / By a jolt or toad in the hole, / By Baron; or dint or dunt. | |
| Happy Mutant Baby Pills 30: Twenty minutes later another guard told me to roll up. I’d done nine months on a two-year jolt. |
3. in non-custodial use of sense 2, a period of time within an institution, e.g. a hospital.
| Goodbye to the Past 40: ‘I won’t have insubordination. A jolt in the army would do that four-eyed sister a lot of good’. | |
| Hilliker Curse 34: I got pneumonia twice. Two-week jolts at County General cured me. |
4. (US) a job.
| (con. late 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 437: It ain’t no nine-to-five jolt or like fuckin school shit, man. |
5. (also the jolts) execution in the electric chair.
| ‘Score None for the Chair’ in Smashing Detective Sept. 🌐 Right now he’s just playing the old game of Chair-Ducking, hoping to win life instead of the Big Jolt. | |
| Q&A 131: ‘None of the DAs wanna go up to Sing Sing when they’re giving someone the jolts’. |
6. (US) a train.
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 133: When I first come to New Orleans I was a ’bo hopped off a jolt. |
In phrases
(US drugs) a drug overdose.
| Holy Barbarians 24: He took an overjolt and passed out. | |
| Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 129: Overjolt [...] we’ve got to walk him. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 199: overjolt overdose. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). |
(US prison) to interfere with the way another person is dealing with their sentence.
| Walk on the Wild Side 263: That was the Mexican’s quarrel, not yours. What did I tell you about shaking another man’s jolt? |
(Aus.) to cause problems for.
| Grifter 8: ‘Surely you ain’t going to use ordinary pencils? They’ll throw you a jolt lively if you do’. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(US) to execute in the electric chair.
| Q&A 131: None of the DAs wanna go up to Sing Sing when they’re giving someone the jolts. |