King Kong n.
1. (US black, also kong) cheap, potent, homemade whisky.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Back Where I Came From (1990) 153: The wine of the country [i.e. Harlem] is a liquid sometimes called King Kong [...] The better form [...] is moonshine prepared in kitchen stills from hominy in grits and sugar [...] There is a lower form made from grain alcohol adulterated with rye flavoring. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Jan. 17/1: [A] puff of weed, a shot of ‘king kong’ and a batch of weakfish. | |
| Tucker’s People (1944) 55: It was nickel-a-drink whisky, the kind the Negroes called King Kong. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 12: She’s in her dried barkers like kong in glassware. | |
| Duke viii: King Kong – a cheap, potent, usually illegally made drink. | |
| Cast the First Stone 24: Monkey’s King kong certainly did pack a tremendous wallop and there was no telling the effects it could have on people. | |
| in Hellhole 117: A notorious and pitiful drunk who spent most of the relief check on cheap wine or king kong. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 82: Most striking is the lack of terms for drinking and drunk. There are only 7 in 435: conk-buster, ink, King Kong, and kong all refer to cheap varieties of wine and liquor. |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
| Really the Blues 247: On the second floor was a King Kong speakeasy, where you could get yourself five-cent and ten-cent shots of home-brewed corn, if you didn’t care about dissolving the enamel on your teeth. |
3. (US drugs) a strong addiction.
| Heroin in Perspective 204: King Kong. A big monkey ($200 or more a day heroin habit). |
In phrases
(drugs) barbiturates.
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 137: king-kong pills barbiturates or other sedative pills. Compare gorilla pills. | |
| Bk of Jargon 338: King Kong pills: Sedatives, barbiturates. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 13: King Kong pills — Depressants. |
(US drugs) to be a habitual user of heroin.
 | Dope Sick 54: I cut back some. I wasn’t completely correct, and she knew it, but I wasn’t sleeping with King Kong every day either. |
(US black) all-purpose intterog. phr.: how are you feeling? what’s your news? etc.
| Pitsburgh Courier (PA) 22 Aug. 7/7: What’s your song, King Kong — how do you feel? what’s your trouble? what’s the news? |