Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. semen.

c.1450

poem in B. Ford (ed.) New Pelican Guide to Eng. Lit. I (rev. edn 1982) 588: I have a powder for to selle, / Quat it is can I not telle; / It makit maydenys wonbys to swelle [? image of ‘gun’ and ‘gunpowder’].

2. (US) a drink of liquor, thus powdered up, drunk [joc. use of SE powder, a medicine or a dose of medicine].

1914		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 22 Apr. [synd. cartoon] Yes the chef at the Grunewald in New Orleans showed me how to build this [i.e. a cocktail] and it’s some powder.
1919		St Louis Post-Despatch 16 Jan. 25/2: Now, if you want to stick around here, you cut out the powders (whiskey).
1919		D. Runyon ‘A Tale of Two Fists’ XXVI in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 14 June 11/7: ‘I drank $10 worth of brew [...] and I was all powdered up’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 150: Powder.– A drink of liquor, seemingly taken from the fact that a drink often braces one up much as would a powdered medicine.
1938		J. O’Hara Hope of Heaven 137: ‘We can go to the Bamboo Room and refresh your memory [...] I’ll buy you a powder’.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 99: I [...] was having a quiet powder.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 123: It’s part of my racket to sit around [...] enjoying a friendly powder with the boys.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: powder – A drink of liquor.

3. (drugs, also baking powder) any form of powdered drug, e.g. heroin, cocaine, amphetamine.

1920		H.C. Witwer Kid Scanlon 54: I’m not goin’ to stop anywheres for no powders.
1933		L. Bogan [song title] Baking Powder Blues .
1931		M. Harris ‘Facing the Mob’ in Gangland Stories Feb. 🌐 ‘Sniff another powder and forget it,’ Smooth advised. ‘You’re nuttier ’n hell.’.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 314: powder. A powdered drug.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 112: He never sold a grain of powder.
1977		A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 189: He deals in powders. Cocaine and speed. [...] And some smack.
1989		T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 7: By 1984 [...] only a few customers were asking for powder.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 59: Sort us some powder?
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 110: (specifically heroin) I’ll move all the weed you want, but don’t ever dump any coke or powder on me. Never.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 353: She got five dollars’ worth of powder from a dealer [...] and after taking a little snort for heself [etc.].
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 144/2: powder n. = speed sense 1.
2007		UGK ‘Gravy’ 🎵 On parole well I’m a pistol packer, drugs sold, powder jacker.
2012		D. Whish-Wilson ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Danny [...] had his father’s weakness for the powder.
2012		J. Robinson Gospel of the Game 20: Let’s have a drink and some powder.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 38: The smart ones [...] stayed within the realms of pills and powder.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 23: His voice high, fuelled by powder.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 155: You could get a little weed in. You could get a little powder. Prescription drugs were wide open.