Dictionary

fishscale en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From fish + scale. The use for sense 2 is from its appearance as shiny yellowish flakes resembling the scales of a fish, as opposed to dull white powder.

Meanings

1. (countable, qualifier:literal) The scale of a fish.
2. (slang, uncountable) Cocaine, usually of high quality, taken directly off the brick and uncut.
   • Oh shit, it was Fishscale! It was love at first sight. He nearly fell back in his chair. "No mothafuckin' way!" he yelled. He jumped up and danced a little two-step jig and thanked his lucky stars for the come-up. Fishscale cocaine! It was fucking Fishscale! 2011, Boston George, Caroline McGill, Soft: Cocaine Love Stories, unnumbered page:
   • The kids out here don't know a flake from a fish—if you asked them what fishscale is, they wouldn't know. [Fishscale is high-grade cocaine powder with few rock-like chunks.] 1989, Terry Williams, chapter 2, in The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring, page 41:
   • "You can get anything on here—isn't it incredible?" Slick Guy continues. "I couldn't believe it, either. I mean anything. MDMA from Holland, high-end weed, fish-scale coke, whatever. 2015, Duane Swierczynski, Canary, unnumbered page:

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