charva

vb, n

British

(to have) sexual intercourse. A word that was almost unknown by the 1980s, but which was used in criminal, theatrical and other circles in the 1950s and early 1960s. It is Romany in origin (from charvo meaning to interfere with), and refers to the 'taking' of a woman by a man, so, by extension, it has been used to portray a woman as a sex object. chase the dragon vb

a.

to take heroin by smoking it. The specific meaning of this expression (the arrival of which coincided with an influx of cheap heroin into the UK in the late 1970s) is to inhale fumes from a piece of the vaporising drug through a tube, often literally chasing the smoke across the sheet of foil on which the drug is 'cooked'.

► Carmella never injected heroin, her se-rious involvement came with "chasing the dragon", inhaling a burning trail from a piece of tin foil.' (Independent, 17 July 1989)

b.

to flirt with death by using heroin. This more generalised meaning of the sinisterly colourful phrase was adopted by middle- and upper-class drug users when heroin spread to these circles in the early 1980s.

See: chav