Meanings
quaalude1
Quaalude2
plural Quaaludes · alternative quaalude
- A dose of this drug, sometimes taken recreationally.
2 more examples
On a daily basis I consume enough drugs to sedate Manhattan, Long Island, and Queens for a month. I take Quaaludes 10-15 times a day for my "back pain", Adderall to stay focused, Xanax to take the edge off, pot to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine... Well, because it's awesome.
2013, Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street, spoken by Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio)Hef was the grinning pimp of the sexual revolution, with quaaludes for the ladies and Viagra for himself — a father of smut addictions and eating disorders, abortions and divorce and syphilis, a pretentious huckster who published Updike stories no one read while doing flesh procurement for celebrities, a revolutionary whose revolution chiefly benefited men much like himself.
2017 September 30, Ross Douthat, “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner”, in New York TimesSynonyms: methaqualone, lude, mandrake
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA dose of this drug, sometimes taken recreationally.
More synonyms by meaning
nounsedative-hypnotic drug (trade name Quaalude) that is a drug of abuse
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Supposedly a blend of quiet + Maalox + interlude.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
quaalude. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quaalude
“quaalude.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quaalude. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quaalude,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quaalude.
Source: quaalude on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.