Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US drugs) an opium addict (who prepares his or her own pipes).

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

2. one who manufactures bootleg alcohol.

1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/1: ‘This is Goo-Goo speaking. How’s that mule you’re cleaning?’ ‘Block-an’ fall.’ ‘Hm-mm. Well, have th’ cooker give it th’ frown anyway.’.
1931		‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K3: COOKER: Moonshiner.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. (drugs) a container, usu. a bottle cap, in which the mixture of heroin and water can be heated before drawing it into a syringe and thence injecting it into one’s arm.

1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 120/1: cooker. The receptacle, usually a spoon, which is used to boil the solution before it is taken into the needle.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 58: cooker The receptacle in which opium is cooked.
1958		W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 169: They grab their cookers. The cookers are metal caps off wine bottles, with the cork lining taken out.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 10: When he awakes in the morning, he reaches instantly for this ‘works’ — eyedropper, needle (‘spike,’ he calls it), and bottle top (‘cooker’). He dissolves heroin in water in the cooker and injects the mixture.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 19: They carefully dumped the heroin in it, then added the water and heated it until the dope dissolved, then drew the liquid up through the cotton in the cooker into the dropper.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Whitey’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 211: If he had just five dollars, he’d split fast and go directly to the cooker and get straight.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 5: They [...] cluster together amid the cookers and candles and syringes.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 160: I [...] split, taking a cab back to the Ritz and diving into the cooker.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] [A] small, blackened cooker like they hand out with bleach and cotton at the ‘needle exchange’.

4. a container used in the illicit manufacture of spirits.

1949		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Moonshiner’ AS XXIV:1 5: Steam is piped into one or more large cookers [...] where vaporization takes place.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 113: The specially made gas range under the cooker was blazing.

5. one who cooks freebase cocaine.

1992

T. Williams Crackhouse 147: cooker – person who cooks cocaine-freebase.

6. one who manufactures methamphetamine.

2001		ONDCP Street Terms 6: Cooker — [...] person who manufactures methamphetamine.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 66: The cooker’s code involved never admitting to an accident.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 176: ‘You got a connect to a good cooker for ice’.

7. (Aus.) one whose brain has been fig. ‘cooked’ by the ingestion of conspiracy theories and other right-wing fantasies.

2022

Twitter 23 Dec. 🌐 This [i.e. a short film of shouting cultists] is Cooker Central. Have a look it’s a ripper.