Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US drugs) an opium smoker.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(US drugs) to smoke opium.

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 465: suck the bamboo, To smoke opium.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 820: sucking bamboo – Smoking opium, the pipe being usually of bamboo.

a blow, usu. when offered in place of the tip that is requested.

1801		G. Hadley Compendious Grammar 3: Bamboo-buhkshish, a cant phrase signifiying a recompense or present with a bambooing, or thrashing.
1859		Hobart Town Dly Mercury 16 May 3/6: Soon afterwards I saw the chief serving out bamboo backsheesh to some Sikhs who passed him with loot, with a big stick.
1860		W.H. Russell My Diary in India 407: [B]ut as some other emissaries had given information of an opposite character, the quartermaster-general ordered his eyebrows, beard, and head to be shaved, and a plentiful allowance of bamboo backsheesh to be administered to him.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 87: All over India and the East generally, the natives lose no opportunity of asking for buckshish. The usage is such a complete nuisance, that the word is sometimes answered with a blow; this is termed bambooo buckshish.
1869		Man about Town 9 Oct. 34/3: His manner was deuced important, and I felt disposed to give him bamboo backshish.
1877		R.F. Burton Sind Revisited I 31: Or some pepper-pod of an ensign – we call him a ‘sub-lieutenant’ in these days – threatened the boatmen with ‘bamboo bakhshish;’ whereat the little whity-browns on board would at once throw themselves into their quasi-natural element, and strike shorewards like dabchicks.
1887		J. Moray Brown Shikar Sketches 150: Nothing moved, however; but, on going up to the spot, what was my delight to find five snipe all quite dead, and packed into the hole as if in a nest! Needless to add, my native guide did not get the ‘bamboo backsheesh’ with which I was so nearly threatening him.
1892		Goulburn Eve. Penny Post (NSW) 3 Dec. 6/5: [as 1864].
1902		H. Compton Free Lance in a Far Land 264: ‘That I surely will,’ roared the Feringee Shaitaun in a voice like a musth elephant. ‘Bamboo buxees, you black hind leg of a bandicoot!’ and [...] caught him a cuff on the head, and set to work kicking him.

a thrashing.

1878		H.A. Giles Gloss. of References on Subjects Connected with the Far East in DSUE (1984).
1887		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 8 June 2/4: Here we were shown the instruments whereby bamboo chow-chow is given to ther nadal callosities of the wicked.
1893		Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 7 May 9/2: The nearest ‘namhoi’ (native Chinese magistrate) in CAton [...] applies the bamboo (commonly termed ‘bamboo chow-chow’) as a wholesome warning.
1895		Phillipsburg Herald (KS) 25 Apr. 7/5: In pigin-English, ‘Bamboo chow-chow’ is a term expressing the application of the rod.
1901		St Louis Republican (MO) 30 June 7/4: The doctor can throw the bearers in the street and give them bamboo chow-chow besides.
1930		L. Thomas Lauterbach of the China sea 16: Evidently he knew what was coming, and did not like the idea of ‘bamboo chow chow,’ as they called a licking.

(W.I.) a wedding according to Hindu rites; thus marry under bamboo.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

a network of gossip and/or rumour offering unofficial news.

1959

A. Burgess Beds in the East (1972) 543: ‘How did you find that out?’ ‘It came through on the bamboo wireless. Everything comes through.’.