bhang

alternative archaic bang · alternative archaic bangue · alternative archaic benj

1. uncountableA traditional South Asian preparation made from the leaves and flowers of the cannabis plant, consumed in food or drink.
2. IndiaKenyaNorthPakistanUgandauncountableelsewhere slangCannabis or its preparations generally.

   He rolled out from under Zelikman, who looked surprised as if by the turn his bhang dream had taken.

   2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, page 101

   3 more examples

   Almost from the outset of her arrival in the town, soft-muted music, the strange, heart-rending, mournful music of the East - suggestive of apes, and pearls, and bhang, and the colour blue - was to be heard, surging from the Nook in monotonous improvisation.

   1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 36

   Stramonium seed, mixed with wine, produces, according to a seventeenth century erotologist, libidinous activity. The effects, the write asserts, are similar to those produced by bhang.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 229

   Government-approved bhang shops thrive next to sweet shops flaunting rows of local desserts inside brightly lit, glass-panelled counters.

   2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 13