Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (drugs, also toke up) to take a puff on a (usu. cannabis) cigarette or a pipe of crack cocaine; also used of narcotic-based drinks (see cite 1977).

1952		Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 31: TOKE, v. To smoke a cigarette; to take a puff of a cigarette.
1967		I. Rosenthal Sheeper 187: He is [...] toking his joint like a pro, a true teahead.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 7: All that electro-distort stuff that rocked you guys to sleep when you were first tokin’ in your cradles.
1973		Newsweek 1 Jan. 4: Bill Buckley says he went ‘outside the 3-mile limit’ — I’m a law-and-order advocate — to toke up, but neglects to mention where he got the stuff.
1977		L. Block Time to Murder and Create 90: He likes the midnight-to-eight shift because it’s quiet and he can sit behind the desk working double-acrostics, toking periodically from a bottle of cough syrup with codeine in it.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 91: There were a couple of real assholes smoking dope [...] They came up to me and said, ‘You want to toke up with us?’.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Tha Shiznit’ 🎵 I toke every day, I loc every day.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 111: Janice toked up for parties.
2004		T. Winton ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 13: Meg’s lit up a number and they’re toking away on it.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 179: When was the first time you toked?
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 278: ‘They’re refusing to toke up. I think they’re narcs’.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 4: The polis [...] wouldnae know if we wur tokin a half-ounce.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 14: They toked a reefer in the RKO backlot.

2. (US) to drink alcohol.

2004

J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 311: Palsied pensioners toked Tokay in short-dog bottles.