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dime bag

dime bag

5 9.9
A small bag of illegal marijuana sold for ten dollars
  • noun
  • /ˈdaɪm bæg/
  • NSFW
translation icon : bolsa de diez
  • Probably the last time you saw him, he and his brother Zurab were pushing dime bags on the streets of Georgia.
  • sell a dime bag

Examples

  • The police found a dime bag hidden in his backpack during the search.

  • Listen, can I get that dime bag, though?

  • It's not about kids selling dime bags on the corner.

  • I drove five hours across state lines to buy a dime bag.

  • Jay pockets the rest of his dime bag.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • You know what, I'm gonna take a dime-bag of each.

  • But if you want, our friend Boog here has a dime bag of some very skunky shit.

  • He paid twenty dollars for two dime bags of marijuana.

  • After school, he met his friend in the parking lot to buy a dime bag.

Synonyms

dope
vsdime bag
  • NSFW
221 9.9

A drug people smoke to feel relaxed or high

is a ten-dollar packet containing drugs rather than the drug itself
dime
vsdime bag
  • NSFW
30 9.6

A small bag of illegal drugs sold for ten dollars

is the same meaning but mentions marijuana and uses multiple words
bindle
vsdime bag
  • NSFW
1 9.9

A small wrapped packet of illegal drugs for sale

is the specific ten-dollar packet rather than a general wrapped bundle

Surface Forms

dime bag singular
dime bags plural

Morphology

dime + bag

The drug-related sense of 'dime bag' depends on slang and cultural knowledge (that 'dime' here denotes a ten-dollar quantity) rather than a straightforward combination of 'dime' (a coin) + 'bag' (container). A B1 learner who knows the literal meanings of the constituents would not reliably infer this illicit-drug meaning, so the expression is idiomatic and unpredictable.

Etymology

The noun dime bag likely comes from the small paper or plastic bag people bought for a 'dime', meaning 'ten dollars'. So dime bag now means 'a small packet of illegal drugs', especially marijuana.