Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dynamite n.1

[the use of ‘tea’ as a codeword for dynamite as revealed during a trial of 1888; but note SE gunpowder, a fine, green-leafed tea, popular in the UK from the 1770s]

tea.

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[UK] (ref. to 1888) in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.