hemp n.
1. the hangman’s noose, whether lit. or just fig. as a ref. to hanging; thus hemp office, the condemned cell; hemp take someone, an oath [the hangman’s noose is made of hemp].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Appius and Virginia in (1908) 26: Haste for a hangman in hazard of hemp! Run! for a ruddock there is no such imp. | |
| Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) V ii: The Pander May know the Hangmans ruffe should fit him too, Therefore he’s set to beat Hempe. | |
| Night-Walker I i: He is a trim youth to be tender of, hempe take him. | |
| ‘The Penitent Traytor’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 56: O Tyburn, Tyburn; O thou sad Tryangle, / A vyler weight upon thee nee’r did dangle, / See here I am at last with Hemp to mew, / To give thee what was long before thy due. | |
| ‘Ballet of Shepheard Tom’ Wit Restor’d (1817) 303: And out of his scrip he pulled a rope: Quoth he, the man that wooes, With me prepare his noose; [...] By hemp Ile choose to dy. | |
| Night-Walkers Declaration 7: Take the Trade of Trepanning [...] to wheadle us gravely into a Tavern, and instead of the Reckoning produce the short Staff, and hurry us away to the Hemp office. | |
 | In Praise of Knavery III 20: He will likewise be Entitled to the Hemp, and a swing at Tyburn. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Truth (Sydney) 14 Apr. 5/3: And on one supreme occasion, which had ne’er occurred before, / He’d the happy opportunity of ord’ring hemp for four. |
2. (drugs) marijuana.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| Duke 162: She’s been hitting the hemp too hard. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. | |
| Mr Love and Justice (1964) 167: Frankie disapproved of Indian hemp (well, just didn’t like it). | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970). | |
| Leaves of Grass 1: Miggles / Hemp / Gage. | |
| (con. 1945) Gather Together In My Name 169: They won’t let you smoke hemp. | |
| Snowblind (1978) 62: Ups, downs, acid, mescalin and hemp. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 11: Hemp — Marijuana. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2.
| Fables in Sl. (1902) 54: He began to drink manhattan Cocktails, and he smoked Hemp Cigarettes until he was Dotty. | |
| Guardian G2 4 Aug. 17: Long-standing hemp enthusiast Harrelson appeared in a Sacramento courtroom last Thursday. |
In compounds
a hanging (poss. by vigilantes).
| Monroe City Democrat (MO) 10 July 7/2: When it comes to amusement Paris [US] with its little necktie party and hemp dance isn’t in it with Mt Morris, Ill. |
(US black/drugs) an apartment where cannabis is sold and smoked.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 25 Jan. 19: That 52nd St rooming house where the hemp factory burns rope all night long! |
(US) a hanging, esp. a lynching.
| Dispatch (Columbus, OH) 6 Dec. n.p.: If the incendiarist is found, a hemp party may result [DA]. |
1. one who is destined to hang; thus eat hempseed, to be destined to hang.
| Henry IV Pt 2 II i: Do, thou rogue! do, thou hempseed. | |
| Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) V ii: Why should I eate hempe-seed at the Hangmans thirteen-pence halfe-penny Ordinary, and haue this whore laugh at me as I swing, as I totter? | |
| [ | | London Spy V 112: It was Justice-Hall, where a Dooms-Day Court was held once a Month, to sentence such Canary-Birds to a Penitential Psalm, who will rather be choak’d by the Product of Hempseed, for living Roguishly than exert their Power in Lawful Labour]. |
| Iron Chest II v: Hence, you hemp-seed, hence! | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Kenilworth I 23: What, Hal Hempseed? [...] [he] fled the country with a pursuivant’s warrant at his heels. | |
| (con. 1715) Jack Sheppard (1917) 123: We’ll see about that, young hempseed. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
2. the hangman.
| The Quaker’s Opera II i: bulk.: I hear Jonathan is abroad again, Mr. Hempseed. hemp.: Damn the Prig, I don’t value him a Louse. |
a term of abuse, a thief.
| (trans.) Supposes IV ii: Thou wilt be hanged, I warrant thee [...] If I come near you, hempstring, I will teach you. | |
| Lady Alimony IV vi: Now, you hemp-strings, had you no time to nim us, but when we were upon our visits? |
In phrases
a warning phr. implying that the person in question is bound to end on the gallows if they pursue their current lifestyle.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 96: ‘Hemp (the) is growing for the villain;’ he is deserving a halter and will get his deserts. | |
| [ | | Gypsey of the Glen I i: Not a knave can be hanged, but you grown at hemp-seed]. |
| Dombey and Son (1970) 379: ‘You’re a nice young gentleman!’ said Mr Carker, shaking his head at him. ‘There’s hemp-seed sown for you, my fine fellow!’. | |
| (ref. to 17C) Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 152/1: Hemp’s grown for you (Peoples’, 17 cent.). Periphrastic prognostication of the gallows-flax coming from hemp and rope from flax. Meaning that already the executioner’s cord is in existence for the beneficiary referred. |