gow n.1
1. alcohol.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 134: When the provider comes home after a hard day [...] lead him to the sideboard, get him full of gow and when totally unconscious extract the bank roll. [Ibid.] 141: Do you think that a shot of gow would help? |
2. opium, heroin or morphine.
| DN V 182: Opium [...] Gow. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 134: You’re in with what ‘gow’ I’ve got. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. 39: ghow, n. Opium. | |
| Opium Addiction in Chicago 199: Gow. Drugs in general. | |
| Traffic In Narcotics 309: gow. Drugs, especially opium. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 67: Ghow – Opium; an opiate. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970). | |
| No Beast So Fierce 81: ‘You got some ghow?’ ‘Two grams in my mouth.’. | |
| Mr Blue 256: Pepper loved junk, smack, ghow, heroin. | |
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Chiva: Heroin (Spanish). Also: scam, gow, stuff, hop. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2.
| (ref. to 1898) Amer. Madam (1981) 272: There’s always the danger she’d bring her pipe and gow pills with her and give the habit to the other girls. | |
| (con. 1870s) Pedlocks (1971) 69: He had rolled the little gow hop pill of opium, cooked it on the end of a pin over the little ken-ten lamp made of a sardine tin. | |
| Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 820: I can [...] make money from the weed man, the crystal man, and money from the gow (heroin) man too. |
4. an opium pipe.
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Humming gay [sic] a favorite opium pipe bowl that purrs and sizzles during the process of cooking opium. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 97: ghow An opium pipe. | |
| Traffic In Narcotics 308: ghow. An opium pipe. |
5. a pleasurable drug experience.
| N.Y.: Confidential 119: White women learned where they could get a ‘belt,’ a ‘jolt,’ or a ‘gow’. |
In compounds
(US) a drug addict, usu. of opium.
| Opium Addiction in Chicago. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 105: gow head An opium addict. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
1. (US campus) a flashily dressed girl or woman.
| Life May 15 68: A ‘gow job’ (flashy girl) wears at least two [i.e. hair clasps]. |
2. (US) a ‘hot rod’ car modified for high performance.
| Life 5 Nov. 87: A ‘hot rod,’ also called a ‘hot iron,’ or a ‘hot-up’ or ‘gow job,’ is an automobile stripped for speed and pepped up for power until it can travel 90 to 125 mph. |
(US prison) an opium den; a place where narcotics are sold.
| Prison Community (1940) 332/2: gow joint, n. A place where opium is smoked, or any place where any narcotic is sold. |
In phrases
(drugs) to smoke opium.
| ‘Junker Lingo’ in AS VIII:2 27: When one has contracted the habit or is under the immediate influence of the drug, he is all lit up, on the gow, or hitting the gow. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |