Meanings
- informaluncountableDrugs of the alkyl nitrate class used recreationally as a sexual stimulant, especially among gay men.
Have I been doing too much poppers?
1991, Perry Brass, Mirage, page 1615 more examples
Amyl nitrate, colloquially called “poppers” has been implicated in the epidemic among gay men.
1995, California Community Planning Working Group, California HIV Prevention Plan, page 155Amyl nitrate, or “poppers,” has been popular as a sexual stimulant in male homosexual communities.
2001, Todd Wilk Estroff, Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, page 39When compared with crystal and its devastating effects, poppers was a relatively mild threat. In fact, many only saw its benefits. “Amyl nitrate is the only drug gay people can claim to know better than straight people"
2005, The Advocate, numbers 942-953, page 2People were convinced that 'poppers' was being pumped through the air conditioning units. That the glasses were being rinsed in morphine! They were desperately trying to find some explanation for their excessiveness.
2005, Helge Janssen, Tell Tale, page 91Poppers is a solvent which is inhaled, for instance directly from a small bottle.
2009, Irmgard Eisenbach-Stangl, Jacek Moskalewicz, Betsy Thom, Two Worlds of Drug Consumption in Late Modern Societies
- pluralplural of popper
Hank Wilson, a gay activist in San Francisco who founded the Committee to Monitor Poppers in 1981 , is candid about why poppers are so prevalent.
1994 November 28, SPIN, volume 10, number 8, page 872 more examples
Poppers are used commonly during social events such as dancing and for muscle relaxation during sex. Poppers are most commonly used in the lesbian and gay population , but have been experimented with by others as well.
1991, Brenda Smith Faison, Laila Moustafa, The AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Handbook, page 26When the original case-control studies of men with HIV infection were performed, poppers were associated with having AIDS, but there were concerns that this was the result of confounding with indices of sexual activity
2008, Scott D. Holmberg, Scientific Errors and Controversies in the U.S. HIV/AIDS, page 31
Origin
Amyl nitrites were originally sold in small glass ampoules wrapped in cloth. Recreational users would crush or "pop" these vials between their fingers to release their vapours, which is thought to be the origin of the slang term.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
poppers. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poppers
“poppers.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poppers. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “poppers,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/poppers.
Source: poppers on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.