Meanings
- South AfricaslangA cigarette.
Husband's under water so she hassles with her laaities, starts lagging with her buddies and lights herself a gwaai.
1997, Barney Simon, Born in the Rsa: Four Workshopped Plays, page 272 more examples
For a start, you will remember it whether you want to or not because I guarantee no other Haven teacher has come through the window and fired up a gwaai to start a lesson. They certainly didn't when I was a pupil here.
2012, Jason Wallace, Out of Shadows, page 121He'd say that every time a black guy would come up and ask him for a gwaai in isiXhosa. And it was obvious what the guys were asking for. I mean, I could even understand them. But it seemed important to him to not speak Xhosa […]
2013, Hagen Engler, Marrying Black Girls for Guys Who Aren't Black, page 168
Origin
Borrowed from Afrikaans.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
gwaai. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gwaai
“gwaai.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gwaai. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gwaai,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gwaai.
Source: gwaai on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.