Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also yen chee, yen she, yen tshi, yin she) opium residue; also attrib.; thus yen-shee hop, the box used to hold opium ashes; sold to impoverished users, yen-shee gow, an implement to clean out an opium pipe.

1881		Harper’s Weekly 24 Sept. 646: The other articles necessary to complete a smoker’s outfit are: a box of buffalo horn (hop toy) to hold the opium [...] a box for the ash, or yen tshi; and two trays, the one smaller than the other, on which all these articles rest.
1891		Reno Eve. Gazette (Reno, Nev.) 23 Apr. 8/1: Tong asserts he was only [...] reboiling Yen Shee or opium dross, the latter being the scraping of pipes.
1892		Campbell, Knox & Byrnes Darkness and Daylight in N.Y. 565: A little box of tin held the yen she or bits of refuse opium.
1898		L.J. Beck N.Y.’s Chinatown 147: This layout consists of [...] Yen Shee Hop (a box for keeping the ashes in).
1903		J. Dyer Ball Things Chinese 494: The flame of the lamp passes over it, converting part of it into the so-called smoke, and leaving a solid residuum known as ‘yín-she,’ opium dross.
1911		Wash. Post 28 June 3/5: Mrs. Chong hauled out [...] 30 pounds of yen chee, or opium that has been smoked and is used again.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 89: yen she [...] The residue of smoked opium.
1918		Journal Amer. Instit. of Criminal Law and Criminology 8 Jan. 749–56: Fifty-eight [addicts] began by smoking opium, twenty per cent used morphine hypodermically, eight ate morphine, three ate ‘yen shee,’ the ashes of opium.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 306: This is especially true with yen-shee-users (yen shee, called ‘black stuff,’ is the ashes of smoked opium).
1931		J.B. Cook S.F. Police and Peace Officers’ Journal June n.p.: After opium is smoked the ashes drop down into the pipe in the bowl. This is scraped out with certain instruments and saved. It is then known as ‘Yen Shee,’ and is later mixed with new opium.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1951		Reno Eve. Gazette 26 Apr. 9/7: Henry Lin Louie [...] pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing yen shee, an opium derivative.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1989		Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 97: [footnote] Yen-shee is the residue of the smoked opium.

2. (also yen she) tincture of opium, sometimes mixed with whisky.

1883		Sun (NY) 20 May 2/7: The opium smoker can ‘taper off’ on ‘yen-shee’ (residuum) and whiskey, and shake off the habit altogether, while gum-eater takes up the watery extract and makes headway backward.
1911		Nevada State Journal 11 July 1/1: A bottle of dark brownish liquid, which the police declare is a decoction of yenshee — a sort of tincture sometimes used by drug fiends. [Ibid.] 12 July 2/7: As to the presence of the half-pint bottle of yenshee found in the room he professed ignorance.
1915		Atlanta Constitution 1/4: Yen shee [...] is also mixed in whisky to form a drink widely enjoyed among the Chinese.
1943		Indiana Eve. Gazette 10 June 7/8: The agents testified that they found [...] a quanitity of yen shee, a drink made from opium ashes.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 52: Yen she, n. A mixture of opium ashes and whiskey.

3. (also when-shee, yen-she, yen-sheesh, yen-shi) opium; also attrib.

1901		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 63: In the same act there is a ‘yen she’ joint and a bevy of ‘hopheads’ pike out into the open air to close in on enough tin to get another long draw.
1914		N.Y. Medical Journal 100 14 Nov. 462–6: Opium smokers and opium and yen shi chewers rarely take cocaine and rarely use the hypodermic syringe.
1919		Journal Amer. Instit. of Criminal Law and Criminology Jan. 62–70: ‘I know what is the matter with you. You’ve been up against the pipe. You’d better start to shoot it.’ Before this, though, he had given me laudanum and yen shee, which relieved my habit.
1926		Helena (MT) Indep. 30 Dec. 2/5: Bundles and packages of morphine, cocaine, opium, yenshee and hashish [...] were burned in the kitchen range of the county bastille.
1930		D. Ahearn How to Commit a Murder 125: That’s the name of the hop. There’s all grades, just like coffee. There’s yensheesh [...] and the brick is the most expensive and the best.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 197: yen shee. – Opium.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 92: There are three grades of opium. Pin Yen is the finest, Yen Shee the second grade, and Swee Cow is the dross of either livened up with raw Yen Shee.
1954		J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 256: yen shi, opium.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 71: In the space behind it he found a kilo of pot and [...] a small cake of yen-shee.
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 87: Some eat it. Sure, I ate yen-shee. I knew some kids that had yen-shee habits.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: When-shee — Opium.

4. heroin.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.