Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see yen-shee n. (1)

see yen tsiang

(US drugs) the lamp used to heat ‘pills’ of opium.

1898

L.J. Beck N.Y.’s Chinatown 147: This layout consists of [...] Yen Hop (a box containing the opium), Yen Dong (opium lamp).

1. (US drugs) the needle used to prepare a pipe of opium.

1881		Harper’s Weekly 24 Sept. 646: The smoker settles himself comfortably upon his side, takes up a little of the treacle-like opium which is brought to him in a small clam shell, upon a long steel needle, or yen hauck.
1886		‘Life in a New York Opium Den’ in T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 This is termed cooking and takes months to become proficient in. To do this the needle or yen hock is grasped between the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand. The point is dipped into the opium, and on removing it a small portion, the size of a bead, adheres to the yen hock.
1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 46: ‘You haven’t forgotten how to handle the yen-hok, Jim,’ said Frank the Kid, as he watched the cook deftly ‘chy’ the pill above the tiny flame of the opium lamp.
1892		Campbell, Knox & Byrnes Darkness and Daylight in N.Y. 565: A needle four or five inches long and flattened at one end was the yen hoc, for holding the opium in the flame.
1896		S. Crane in Sun (N.Y.) 20 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 146: The yen-nock is a sort of sharpened darning needle. With it the cook takes the opium from the box.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 138: I pinched myself to find out whether I’d been fooling with a yen-hok.
1901		C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 215: A ‘layout’ can be purchased for any amount up to $5. It consists of [...] the ‘yen hock,’ or needle, on which the opium is cooked and rolled into pills over the flame from the little peanut oil lamp [...].
1902		Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 1 Nov. 5/2: A member [...] took his little yen-hook, stretched himself out ona divan, rolled a litle pill, lit the pipe and smoked.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 176: The needle or yen hok is merely a short knitting needle, sometimes with a handle.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 77: The Englishman, lifting the bamboo stem and scraping at the bowl viciously with the yen-hok.
1914		Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: When I became a regular smoker I bought a ‘layout’ — pipe, bowls, lamp, tray, yen hocks, everything — and indulged my habit in the ‘joint’ of a white smoker where I was a favored patron.
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 116: The yen hok is the long needle [...] which is used to cook and roll your pill.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 29: The paraphernalia – the hop, pipe, yen hawk (the little instrument with which the opium is rolled on the bowl of the pipe and cooked) and the lamp.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 163: The lamp was a masterpiece of ornament, / While the yen-hoke was made of pure gold.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 116: With the yen hok, a piece the size of a small pea was taken and held over the flame of the lamp, where it changed to a beautiful golden brown color and increased four times in size.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 98: In [his] right hand was the yen hok, a wire about as long and thin as a hatpin, with a finer wire wound around the handle. He would dip the point of the yen hok into a jar of dark-brown gooey stuff that looked like tar, then hold a drop over the flame until it began to swell up like a tiny balloon, adding more to it now and then.
1952		(con. 1920s) G. Fowler Schnozzola 88: Eddie borrowed a hairpin, straightened it, and used it as a ‘yen-hock’, the needle upon which the supposed dream beads were toasted.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 316: yen-hok. A long steel needle upon which an opium pill is cooked.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 52: Yen hok, n. A slender needle used in preparing opium for smoking.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972) 202: yen hook [sic] n. Instrument (pipe) used in opium smoking.
1989		(con. 1920s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 82: The yen-hock makes the pill, it’s like a knitting needle.
1991		(ref. to 1918) J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 177: When Jackson took small balls of wax and said he was making ‘toys’ everybody laughed. Jackon borrowed a hairpin from a chorus girl, put the wax ball on it and announced ‘Yen-hock.’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1, pertaining to opium and/or its smoking.

1899–1900

C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 390: The Dog had started in my flat one of the most prosperous yen-hok layouts this side of San Francisco.

3. attrib. use of sense 1, pertaining to a thin object or person.

1914

Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 89: yen hock [...] Used also as a metaphorical adjective to describe any slender object, as lean person. Example: ‘Ask the yen hock guinea to stake you to a glim.’.

(US drugs) the box that contains opium paraphernalia; Wooldridge (1901) is presumably mistaken.

1894		C.W. Gardner Doctor and the Devil 39: The Doctor was very anxious to be the possessor of a complete ‘lay-out’ for smoking the drug – lamp, ‘yen-hop,’ and ‘hop toy.’ .
1898		L.J. Beck N.Y.’s Chinatown 147: This layout consists of [...] The Yen Tsiang (opium pipe), Ow (opium bowl), Yen hock (a thin wire used for dipping out the opium and holding it over the light while cooking), Yen Hop (a box containing opium).
1901		C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 215: A ‘layout’ can be purchased for any amount up to $5. It consists of the ‘yen hop,’ or pipe, usually made of a section and a half of heavy bamboo, about an inch and a half in diameter.

(US drugs) withdrawal from opium addiction.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US drugs) a pill of opium.

1914		Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: ‘Say, Lee,’ I demanded, when I realized the delightful exhilaration that was stealing over me, ‘cook me up a couple of yen poks’ [pills]. ‘I’m going to smoke a few.’.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 127/2: yen-pok. The pill of opium after it is prepared for smoking.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 236: Once I hit some Yompok, [sic] but never again. Opium.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 316: yen pock. A ration of opium prepared for smoking.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 87: When I wasn’t smoking, I kept some yen-poks around the house. You get up, you take your coffee, throw your yen-pok in there.

(US drugs) marijuana.

1939		Helena (MT) Indep. 11 Mar. 2/7: He was found, it is alleged, with a large quantity of morphine, yenshee, yenpops at 206 South main Street.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 316: yen-pop. Marihuana.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 23: Yen pop — Marijuana.

(drugs) pills of opium; Burroughs Junkie (1953) prefers opium ashes/residue (which can still be recycled when desperate).

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 249: We’d [...] pack along some yen pox (opium pills that you eat), and go out there to the baseball game.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 160: Yen Pox . . . Ash of opium after the opium has been smoked. Yen Pox contains about the same morphine content as opium before smoking. It can be eaten with hot coffee, or dissolved in water and injected intravenously.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 72: Plenny, you find plenny. Much mari-ha-ha, maybe a little yen pox — and a flied egg sandwich.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Sea Voyage’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 142: While in Aruba we had picked up yen-pox and stayed knocked out the whole time we were there.

see separate entry.

see yen-shee n. (3)

(drugs) a restless, drowsy sleep that accompanies opiate withdrawal; ONDCP (2001) is presumably incorrect.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 23: Yen sleep — Restless, drowsy state after LSD use.

a sponge used as part of an opium smoking ‘layout’.

1889

World (N.Y.) 10 Feb. 20/5–6: [The layout includes] a sponge called . . . a ‘yen-suey;’ a long tapering needle [etc.].

see yen-shee n. (1)

(US drugs) an opium pipe.

1867		Galaxy (N.Y.) 4:1 May 26: If the pipe be employed, then, when the recipient has taken an easy, semi-recumbent posture, the smoking-pellet is inserted into a slit in the yen-tsia’ng, or smoking-pistol, and is lighted with a lamp, and the smoke drawn in at a breath.
1881		Harper’s Weekly 24 Sept. 646: The opium pipe is called by the Chinese the yen tsiang, or opium pistol.
1898		L.J. Beck N.Y.’s Chinatown 147: The Yen Tsiang (opium pipe).
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 256: yen chiang An opium pipe.

(US drugs) a craving for opium.

1892		Campbell, Knox & Byrnes Darkness and Daylight in N.Y. 569: ‘I’ve got the yen-yen (opium habit) the worst way,’ said one woman, ‘and must have my pipe every night. I want two or three pipes before I can get to sleep, and sometimes I want half a dozen.’.
1896		S. Crane in Sun (N.Y.) 20 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 145: A yen-yen, let it be known, is the hunger, the craving. It comes to a fiend when he separates himself from his pipe.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl.
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 114: To a man or a woman with a habit, with a yen yen or ‘habit on,’ they sharpen the inner craving for the stuff. [Ibid.] 117: If you don’t believe us, ‘smoke’ and see how soon that yen yen leaves you.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 261: Yen-Yen — hop habit.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 7: Every day at about four o’clock he got the yenyen.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 243/2: Yen-yen. The recurring desire for additional doses of a drug.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(US drugs) to satisfy one’s need for narcotics when suffering withdrawal symptoms.

1938

D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 103/1: To get one’s yen off. To allay withdrawal distress with narcotics. It should be noted that yen applies strictly to withdrawal distress and would hardly be used to indicate the desire (largely psychological) which an addict might feel for narcotics after he had been away from the habit for some time.