Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to smoke a pipe of tobacco or a cigar.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 39: But this I’ll say, a civiller Swell I’d never wish to blow a cloud with!
1827		Bell’s Life in London 23 Dec. 2/5: A jolly tuck-out was propos’d by a parcel of worthies, then blowing their clouds at the Castle.
1833		‘Life In London’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 11: Chaunt a stave, and blow a cloud.
1845		‘A Week in Oxford! in Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Nov. 4/1: We sipped our wine and blew a cloud.
1846		‘Frank Forester’ My Shooting Box 129: I promised to go down and have a jaw, and blow a cloud with old Tom.
1849		Sam Sly 24 Mar. 4/1: Seated to the left of the fire, blowing his cloud, was Bob Br—k, silver-polisher, a knowing old fox.
1852		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 15 Aug. 4/2: -I'm a dorg as smokes like a man [...] blowin my kloud in a kontemplatin manner this week, and rumminatin upon hoornan affairs.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 17/1: There’s a snug little pot-house / [...] / Where many a cloud in my youth I have blowed.
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 26: I’m going to light my pipe, why if you like to blow a cloud too, you can.
1864		Melbourne Punch 21 July 25/2: In English slang, he ‘blew a cloud’ / Or plainly speaking, smok’d his pipe.
1869		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 62: Blowing suffocating ‘clouds’ and boisterously performing in the smoking-room at night.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 207: ‘[T]ell you what, Noodle, my boy,’ said he one morning, as tbey sat blowing a cloud.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet I 234: Come and blow a cloud before you turn in.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 10: ‘blow a cloud’; take a smoke.
1936		N. Gale ‘Down and Up’ in Close of Play 16: If I was you an’ you was me, / I’d grin, an’ rummidge in my fob / Or trousis pocket for a bob, / An’ frank a down-an’-outer through / The turnstile, Guvnor, same as you, / To blow a cloud an’ take a squint / At Robins on the sprint.

2. (also cock a cloud) to smoke opium; thus cloud-blower, an opium smoker.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 22/2: Cloud blowers, opium smokers; dopefiends; hopheads. [Ibid.] 23/1: Cock a cloud, to smoke opium.
1993		Guanghua Wu Chinese/Eng. Dict 2589: blow a cloud – to smoke opium.

intoxicated by marijuana.

1956

H. Ellison ‘I’ll Bet You a Death’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 43: [...] wishing he had a high-stick to put him on the cloud. A little pot and then I’d take on the whole damned force.

to smoke a pipe of tobacco.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) n.p.: Raise a cloud To take Tobacco.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: [...] Will ye raise a cloud, i.e., will ye smoke a pipe.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 19: To take Tobacco – Raise a Cloud.

(US) a pilot.

1952

G. Fowler Schnozzola 38: There was an airplane flyer living at the apartment house where Jeanne lived [...] I’d go to the window to see when she’s comin’ back with that cloud-chaser.

(US teen) a good dancer.

1945

Yank (Far East edn) 24 Mar. 18/2–3: Some of today’s teen-agers – pleasantly not many – talk the strange new language of ‘sling swing.’ In the bright lexicon of the good citizens of tomorrow [...] A fancy dancer is a ‘jive bomber’ or a ‘cloud walker’.