Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A loose or powdered form of cannabis resin used especially for smoking.
  • noun The euphoria caused by smoking kif.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A kind of cannabis smoked in Morocco and Algeria, for narcotic or intoxicating effect.
  • noun The trichome of marijuana, a green powdery substance that falls from dry marijuana high in THC and other cannabinoid compounds.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Colloquial Arabic kēf, from Arabic kayf, kef, condition, pleasure, opiate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Moroccan Arabic كيف (kīf).

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Examples

  • We were amazed in the market to see people openly smoking what they called kif in the popular long thin pipes with a clay bowl.

    TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010

  • We were amazed in the market to see people openly smoking what they called kif in the popular long thin pipes with a clay bowl.

    TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010

  • And, of course, the drugs that push attention inward: hashish and kif.

    Jesse Kornbluth: Isabelle Eberhardt: Dressed Like a Man, Drowned in a Desert Flood in Algeria, Wrote 10 Great Stories Jesse Kornbluth 2011

  • Allen Ginsberg saying no to kif, waving it away, declaring, “I'm for the stiff drink, the vapor high, where you sit and just think, where consciousness becomes common sense.”

    An Admirer Visits Paul Bowles 2010

  • But -- and with Charlaine Harris and Peter V. Brett over the past year giving me my first UK bestsellers I've been looking at this lots to see how Charlaine's doing and predict with Peter kif we had a chance at making -- the tail-off is where you start to see the difference in the two markets.

    Here vs There The Brillig Blogger 2010

  • But -- and with Charlaine Harris and Peter V. Brett over the past year giving me my first UK bestsellers I've been looking at this lots to see how Charlaine's doing and predict with Peter kif we had a chance at making -- the tail-off is where you start to see the difference in the two markets.

    Archive 2010-04-01 The Brillig Blogger 2010

  • And the critics won't have to guess this time: the matted orange curls, caked with traces of sweat, semen, and kif, will be recognized as a crown that signals the coming of something truly special.

    BOLO: Alfred Chester's Wig 2009

  • And the critics won't have to guess this time: the matted orange curls, caked with traces of sweat, semen, and kif, will be recognized as a crown that signals the coming of something truly special.

    BOLO: Alfred Chester's Wig 2009

  • The corner of the hash was burning and the smell of the kif filled the entire immigration area with a sweet, pungent, India-Pakistan hippie smell.

    Cheech & Chong Tommy Chong 2008

  • The corner of the hash was burning and the smell of the kif filled the entire immigration area with a sweet, pungent, India-Pakistan hippie smell.

    Cheech & Chong Tommy Chong 2008

Comments

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  • I remember "kif" from Sam Kashner's memoir about the Beatniks. Someone yells into a phone Sam called his mom on, "This boy refuses our kif"

    December 10, 2007

  • Kif is a word for marijuana.

    Also the name of one of my kittens once.

    January 31, 2008