Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. pertaining to drugs.

1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 214: Lord Wrexborough thinks that Scotland Yard hasn’t got an officer clever enough for the dope people?
1924		Truth (Brisbane) 22 June 12/3: The ‘dope traffic’ has reached such world-wide dimensions that the League of Nations has a Special Committee to deal with the problem.
1925		Du Bose Heyward Porgy (1945) 60: Get her, men. Better use bracelets. Can’t tell about dope cases.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘Not even fifty grand [...] could tempt me to tie up with him in the dope racket’.
1932		L.E. Lawes Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing 269: Our head nurse was a ‘dope’ doctor.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 29: No one who noticed it thought it strange for a Sister of Mercy to [...] enter a dope den.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 41: Dope arm [...] Dope bull [...] Dope copper – a Federal agent in the narcotics service.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 30: [as 1957].
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 52: One boss did a long bit in a dope pinch.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 26: ‘Doing a little dope scam, eh?’.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 389: That boy’s sick, Iola. Dope sick.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 8: [Most] of the people are dope sick.

2. (US black, also dope-ass, dope-fine, dope-fly) very good, excellent [note dope n.¹ (9)].

1981		Jimmy Spicer in Stanley Rap: the Lyrics (1992) 301: Them boys is dope.
1993		Dr Dre ‘Deeez Nuuuts’ 🎵 Some shit that I wrote / With my nigga d-r-e, so you know I must be dope.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 29/2: Check out them dope-ass rhymes.
2001		Indep. on Sun. Mag. 21 Jan. 54: The fact that he was white didn’t change anything. If you’re dope, you’re dope.
2006		P. Blauner Slipping into Darkness 238: ‘My neighbor’s Ysabel has a little girl, ’bout the same age, so we trade off. She’s my dope fly homegirl’.
2010		IOL News (SA) 9 June 🌐 The lyrics are catchy, the beats dope, their rap-rave style f*kken zef.
2011		S. Kelman Pigeon English 6: He was proper quick and the words still came out dope-fine.
2019		www.verywellfamily.com/a-teen-slang-dictionary 10 Mar. 🌐 Dope - Cool or awesome.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 180: ‘I got a dope new truck [...] camo rims’.