rappee

plural rappees

1. archaiccountablehistoricaluncountableA dark, coarse, strongly flavoured snuff.First known use 18th c.

   The fellow wears a solitaire, uses paint, and takes rappee with all the grimace of a French marquis.

   1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   Good night for to-night—oh! I forgot—pray send me some café au lait: the Duc de Picquigny [Louis Joseph d'Albert, 6th Duke of Chaulnes] (who by the way is somebody's son, as I thought) takes it for snuff, and says it is the new fashion at Paris; I suppose they drink rappee after dinner.

   1763 October 18 (date written), Horace Walpole, “To the Earl of Hertford [Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford]”, in Mrs. Paget Toynbee [i.e., Helen Wrigley], editor, The Letters of Horace Walpole, Fourth Earl of Orford […], volume V (1760–1764), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1904, →OCLC, page 382

   Thou art like my rappee here, [takes out his box.] a moſt ridiculous ſuperfluity, but a pinch of thee novv and then is a moſt delicious treat.

   1766, George Colman, David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, a Comedy. […], London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […]; R[oberts] Baldwin, […]; R. Davis, […]; and T[homas] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 58

   ‘Why, it is difficult, sir, I confess,’ said the tall footman. ‘It may be done by degrees, Sir. Coffee is the best practice. I carried coffee, Sir, for a long time. It looks very like rappee, sir.’

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXV, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC