hophead

English

Etymology

From hop +‎ -head.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hophead (plural hopheads)

1. (US, slang) A drug addict.
   • 1939, Walton Hall Smith, Ferdinand Christian Helwig, Liquor, the Servant of Man, page 193:

     For the alcoholic there are numerous substitutes: a period of intense diversion and excitement, pressing need for rest, hypnotic sedatives, sleep. Not for the hophead. Sedatives don't touch it; he can't rest; he can't even sleep.

   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 107:

     “Oed,” looking at her puzzled, “you don't get addicted. It's not like you're some hophead. You take it because it's good. […]

   • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest, Knopf:

     Why should we all go around on tiptoe forever pretending the kid's not a hophead?

2. (British, slang) A beer enthusiast or homebrewer.

Anagrams

• head-hop