Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. usu. in pl., a snack, snacks or small meal.

1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 183: Food in general is referred to as [...] ‘munchie’, ‘tuck’, or ‘tucker’.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 172: He foraged in the refrigerator for munchies.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 240: usage: ‘Get heaps of munchies for the party tonight’.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] Will you go around and see what munchies you can get me, so at least they can’t starve me out, right?”.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 55: They walked to the shops, all agreeing to chip in for some munchies.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Plastic shopping bags full of munchies and cheap champagne.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 222: Water was all I wanted, but the munchies were stashed in the same bag.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 131: Valentine’s Day is on the Wednesday, shall we go for our munchies on the Friday?

2. attrib. use of sense 1 .

1993

M. Myers et al. Wayne’s World II [film script] Garth goes to the munchies table.

3. usu. in pl., the craving for food, often sweet or in an otherwise unlikely combination of flavours, that afflicts smokers of hashish or marijuana.

1970		Current Sl. V:2 10: Marijuana munchies, n. A state of extreme hunger.
1973		Newsweek 12 Feb. 68: The POW’s will quickly learn about ‘bummers’ (‘unpleasant experiences, especially with drugs’), ‘joints’ (‘marijuana cigarettes, jays, j’s, reefers’) and ‘munchies’ (‘to be hungry, usually after ingesting marijuana’).
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 15: We have just smoked three joints [...] eaten a five pound pot of chili con carne, two pork chops each and a couple other things [...] Easily a case of the superduper munchies.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 124: Once I got high, I got the serious munchies.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 60: Work up some munchies an ger inter that multipack a crisps.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘Hey, if you get the munchies later, there’s some biscuits in a cupboard, and a caesar salad in the fridge’.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 60 : The craving for sweet food became unbearable. This was happily called the munchies.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 23: I’m getting some serious munchies. Do you have any sweets.
2014		Baltimore Sun (MD) 16 Apr. T26/2: Munchies; Yes, indeed, hell yes. Let’s eat.

4. a snack eaten to assuage this craving; also attrib.

1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 158: Late night stores with lumpy guys [...] on a munchy hunt.
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 243: ‘Munchies,’ said Coleman. ‘Come in.’.
2000		Guardian G2 28 Mar. 23: A munchies-run bag of goodies.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 215: Stopping off some place with the munchies is, like, the desi version a coming inside for a coffee.