opium-eater

English

Noun

opium-eater (plural opium-eaters)

1. A person who uses opium as a recreational drug; an opium addict.
   • 1823, Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, page 103:

     Turkish opium-eaters it seems, are absurd enough to sit, like so many equestrian statues, on logs of wood as stupid as themselves.

   • 1868, John P. Brown, The Dervishes: Or, Oriental Spiritualism, page 309:

     The mind (brain), utterly prostrate after the effect had ceased, required still more imperatively than in the case of the opium-eater a fresh supply to the deceased imagination[.]

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     We were like confirmed opium-eaters: in our moments of reason we well knew the deadly nature of our pursuit, but we certainly were not prepared to abandon its terrible delights.

   • 2005, Gulzar Singh Sandhu, Gods on Trial and Other Stories, page 151:

     The opium-eater prepares "Number Seven" and the Chowdhri sips it, along with information regarding market conditions, the rise and fall in prices, and the prevailing political atmosphere, all of which he gets from an Urdu daily[.]