skyf, noun

Forms:
Also skayf, skuif.
Plurals:
usually skyfs, occasionally skuiwe, skywe /ˈskeɪvə/.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Adaptation of Afrikaans skuif a pull on a pipe, a puff of smoke, from Dutch schuiven to smoke.
slang
a. zol noun sense 1 a. b. zol noun sense 3. Also dimunitive form skyfie [see -ie].
1946 C.P. Wittstock in E. Partridge Dict. of Underworld (1950) 399Dagga..: laughing skuif, boom, etc.
1967 Drum 28 Aug. 7This roker did not touch liquor at all. What did he get out of smoking dagga? ‘It kept me calm and even-tempered...I couldn’t go to sleep at night unless I had a good few skuifs...If I didn’t smoke it, I would fight too much. But when I caught a skuif, I didn’t feel like fighting.’
1974 Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.5 No.1, 10Tobacco is snout...Skuif is a cigarette — sometimes also laugh, spill or zoll. Most skuiwe are hand-rolled from pipe-snout.
1974 Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.5 No.1, 11To the ordinary smoker, a stop..means sufficient snout to roll a skuif.
1977 Family Radio & TV 23 Jan. 19Cigarettes are an extravagance far beyond their almost non-existent means, so they buy cheap pipe-tobacco and roll it in newspaper to make skyfs.
1979 Cape Times 1 Dec. 11Smoking dagga green is mostly for the beginner and soon he becomes addicted to smoking his ‘skuif’ or ‘pil’ white. (The term white indicates that mandrax tablets ground to a fine white powder have been sprinkled onto the smoker’s green dagga.)
1982 J. Allan in Sunday Times 6 June (Mag. Sect.)The taxi-driver oke (he’s got one of those custom-bent skyfs like hanging from his lower lip) is taking his cherrie..for a ‘hoddog’ and chips.
1985 H. Prendini in Style Oct. 39Student slang..tends to be more entertaining and imaginative and less deliberately vulgar than southern suburbs jol talk. Students..‘swaai a zephyr’, or get ‘goofed’ on a ‘skyf’ (smoke dagga) before..‘zonking out’ (going to sleep).
1987 Frontline Oct.Nov. 11Bumming pinches of tobacco to make himself skywe.
1990 R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 60I was just pulling your legs. Take it easy. Sweet. You got a skayf?
1990 C. Leonard in Weekly Mail 2 Nov. 29One of them, a big ‘oke’ with a moustache, cap, bright orange string vest and lime green bermudas, drags deeply on a dagga cigarette...His friend, giggling, takes the ‘skyf’ and follows his example.
zol noun sense 3. Also dimunitive form skyfie [see -ie].
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19461990