khat

Alternative forms

• gat, kat, qat, quat, tschat

Etymology

From Arabic قَات‎ (qāt).

Noun

khat (countable and uncountable, plural khats)

1. A shrub, Catha edulis, whose leaves are used as a mild stimulant when chewed or brewed as tea; also a drug produced from this plant.
   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p. 31:

     Of course he was an amateur of quat – hashish – which delighted the cops.

   • 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin 2014, p. 25:

     ‘And skinny Arab beggars who chew qat all day long to kill their appetites and get high on the weed.’

   • 2011, Jay Badahur, The Guardian, 24 May 2011:

     Habitually munching on narcotic leaves of khat, they are easy enough to spot, their gleaming Toyota four-wheel-drives slicing paths around beaten-up wheelbarrows and pushcarts.

Anagrams

• Kath

Noun

khat

1. khat (plant)
2. khat (drug)

Alternative forms

• qat

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kat/

Noun

khat m (plural khats)

1. khat; qat

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kat/

Noun

khat m (invariable) (Variant of: chat)

1. khat

Noun

khat m (plural khats)

1. khat (Catha edulis, a shrub of eastern Africa and Arabia, used as a drug)