Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (orig. US, also budling) a young (usu. pubescent) girl.

1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 22 Nov. n.p.: Red Roses [...] They have not all bloomed yet: there’s too many buds among them [...] take care in pulling the flowers.
1889		Daily News 31 May in Ware (1909) 53/1: The American novelist is in rather a tight place. [...] His grievance at present is the censorship of the ‘bud’, or young girl, of his native land.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Mar. 3/1: Gertie Johnson [...] is a pretty Auburn, N.Y. budling, and she is now in a heap of trouble.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 53: I took my wife and ‘buds’ to the firemen’s ball.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 141: Other Girls not as Good-Looking or Accomplished had been grabbed off while they were Buds.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Wandering Boy’ in Ade’s Fables 130: An imported Professor taught the Buds how to Tango and Trot.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 109: Every stud and every bloomin’ bud is gonna be trilling and drilling on both sides of the main drag.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 11: Long-haired little WASP and Jewish buds balling spade cats.
1971		(con. early 1930s) B. Short Black and White Baby 51: Mrs. Taylor personally selected her buds, membership was by invitation only, and the Social Aristocrats wound up the season with a formal dance.

(b) a debutante.

1880		R. Grant Confessions of Frivolous Girl 27: Mr. Blake, I waltz horribly. I am only an inexperienced ‘bud,’ you know.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 24/3: All the managing mammas among the English nobility are arranging to bring out their ‘buds’ simultaneously with the Prince of Wales’s two daughters, respectively seventeen and sixteen, who will be launched on the sea of English society in the coming season.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘Lost on Dress Parade’ in Four Million (1915) 222: To the society bud comes but one début; it stands alone sweet in her memory when her hair has whitened.
1914		Wash. Post 15 Nov. 6/1: Any Washington ‘bud’ should feel that her American-designed dress was the last thing.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 25: All the nifty buds, with their Noses lifted high above the Corsage Bouquets, sized up the pale Sliver.
1928		J.P. McEvoy Showgirl 163: Probably one of those Park Avenue buds.

(c) a young, immature man.

1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 191: I would put up a gorge for the satisfaction of havin’ a legal reckonin’ with that young bud.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 115: ‘I will pay the bill’ says this bud, ‘only don’t mention my name.’.
1935		E. Anderson Hungry Men 72: I got a bud. He’s twenty-two now.
1955		E. Hoagland Cat Man 61: I wonder if that bud ever gets in the cage with them damn’d things [i.e. leopards].

(d) (US gay) a homosexual teenager.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 46: a homosexual teenager. [...] bud (esp used of young latent homosexuals).

(a) (also buj) cannabis.

1983		Toyes ‘Smoke Two Joints’ 🎵 Tokin’ on some sweet bud and jammin’ on a rootsy reggae-funky town.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 138: Let’s say some homegirls sneak in with some bud [...] You gonna take a hit?
1993		Dr Dre ‘Fuck Wit Dre Day’ 🎵 And pass the bud, and stay low-key B.
1998		Source Nov. 162: I got them under control. I give them drink and bud or whatever and keep ’em calm.
1999		Indep. Rev. 9 Nov. 12: Because it means posing with buds, or smoking a joint.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 86: ‘Everybody brings bud and forties. Sit there and get fucked up’.
2009		B.W. Jeffs Lost Boy 147: My boss said, ‘Let’s smoke some bud.’ I didn’t want to seem uncool, so I agreed and we all got high.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 91: I was [...] smoking so much bud that if I remembered an hour from any one of those days it would have been a lot.
2012		L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] All the buds you can smoke and titties as far as the eye can see.

(b) that part of the cannabis plant that is smoked; thus a general term for marijuana.

1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 178: Maryjane: leaf, prime buds.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 32: Red-eyed from smokin’ down buds of skunk.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 54: The bud felt sticky between her fingers – a good sign.
2008		G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 56: Chris had bought some marijuana [...] and had passed a couple of buds on to Ben.