Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a cigarette, esp. a cheap brand (orig. Virginia rather than the more exotic Turkish tobacco); also a cigar (see cit. 1938).

1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 79: He produced a packet of ‘gaspers’.
1925		M. Arlen May Fair (1947) 201: ‘Have you, in that case, a cigarette you could spare?’ ‘Gaspers,’ said the policeman.
1935		B. Bunting Complete Poems ’The Well of Lycopolis’ n.p.: Swapped your spare boots for a packet of gaspers.
1938		J.H. Warner ‘A Word List From Southeast Arkansas’ in AS XIII:1 5: gasper, n. Cigar.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 113: His case may be stuffed with stolen ‘hooch,’ gaspers or watches.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: Have you got any gaspers, Freddie? I’m dying for a smoke.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 16: The hand that lit the after-breakfast gasper shook quite a bit.
1965		(con. 1940s) N. Hilliard Power of Joy 312: Got a gasp on you?
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘The Bastard from the Bush’ in Snatches and Lays 82: Would you care to have a gasper?
1983		K. Bonfiglioli letter in Bonfiglioli Mortdecai ABC (2001) 148: Try to visualise the misery of scraping up (I am not exaggerating) the price of a packet of gaspers plus a postage stamp.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Gasper. A cigarette.
2000		Observer Mag. 15 Oct. 37: 20 or more gaspers a day for 20 or more years.
2006		R. Hughes Things I Didn’t Know (2007) 208: The Woodbine, the english working-class cigarette par excellence, the no-frills, no-filter gasper.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 381: G]etting off the premises so she could have a gasper to make her even hoarser.

2. (drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1984		Abel Dict. Drug Abuse Terms.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 10: Gasper — Marijuana cigarette.