junk sick

See also: junk-sick

English

Alternative forms

• junk-sick

Pronunciation

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Adjective

junk sick

1. (slang) Experiencing the nausea sometimes suffered by the user of a narcotic the following day, or after the effects of the drug begin to wear off, often with flulike symptoms.
   • 1953, William S. Burroughs, The Yagé Letters:

     I checked into the hospital junk sick and spent four days there […]

   • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 4:

     […] a few old relics from hop smoking times, spectral janitors, grey as ashes, phantom porters sweeping out dusty halls with a slow old man's hand, coughing and spitting in the junk-sick dawn […]

Usage notes

• Used especially in reference to heroin use.

Derived terms

• junk sickness

See also

• dope sick
• junkie
• strung out