bhang

• bang, bangue, benj (archaic)

Transliteration of Hindustani بھانگ / भाँग (bhāṅg).

• IPA^(key): /bæŋ/, /baŋ/
• Rhymes: -æŋ
• Homophone: bang

bhang (uncountable)

1. A preparation made from the leaves and flowers of the cannabis plant, traditionally consumed in food or drink, especially during Hindu festivals such as Holi.
2. (India, Kenya, Uganda, elsewhere slang) Cannabis or its preparations generally.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 36:

     Almost from the outset of her arrival in the town, soft-muted music, the strange, heart-rending, mournful music of the East - suggestive of apes, and pearls, and bhang, and the colour blue - was to be heard, surging from the Nook in monotonous improvisation.

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 229:

     Stramonium seed, mixed with wine, produces, according to a seventeenth century erotologist, libidinous activity. The effects, the write asserts, are similar to those produced by bhang.

   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, page 101:

     He rolled out from under Zelikman, who looked surprised as if by the turn his bhang dream had taken.

   • 2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 13:

     Government-approved bhang shops thrive next to sweet shops flaunting rows of local desserts inside brightly lit, glass-panelled counters.

• bhang lassi
• bhangmeter

bhang

1. lenited form of bang