Dictionary

khat en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /kɑːt/
• /kat/
• /kæt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic قَات (qāt).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) 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.
   • 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. 2011 May 24, Jay Bahadur, “Somali pirate: 'We're not murderers… we just attack ships'”, in the Guardian:
   • ‘And skinny Arab beggars who chew qat all day long to kill their appetites and get high on the weed.’ 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 25:
   • They are chewing on khat, a small serrated, bitter leaf with remarkable stimulative properties. […] One of the great things about khat[…] is that after a good chew you need to do something—walking, running, chopping wood, vigorously reciting a poem, throwing a grenade, anything that requires boldness and physical initiative. 1967 July 9, Lawrence Fellows, “East Africa Turns On With Khat”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Of course he was an amateur of quat – hashish – which delighted the cops. 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 31:

Forms

Synonyms

miraa · Bushman's tea

Translations (53)

fi khatpensas (Catha edulis) · da kat (Catha edulis) · af boesmanstee (Catha edulis) · sw miraa (Catha edulis) · nl qat (Catha edulis) · am ጫት (Catha edulis) · ps قات (Catha edulis) · si කාට් (Catha edulis) · ko 까트 (Catha edulis) · da khat (Catha edulis) · so qaad (Catha edulis) · cmn 巧茶 (Catha edulis) · is khat (Catha edulis) · de Kathstrauch (Catha edulis) · eo ĉato (Catha edulis) · vi lá khát (Catha edulis) · th คัต (Catha edulis) · so jaad (Catha edulis) · ja チャット (Catha edulis) · ga cait (Catha edulis) · fi khat (Catha edulis) · ka კათი (Catha edulis) · pt khat (Catha edulis) · jv khat (Catha edulis) · lv katas koks (Catha edulis) · ja カート (Catha edulis) · ur قات (Catha edulis) · sv kat (drug) · no khat (Catha edulis) · fa قات (Catha edulis) · tr gat (Catha edulis) · lt arabinis dusūnas (Catha edulis) · ms qat (Catha edulis) · xh iqgwaka (Catha edulis) · id qat (Catha edulis) · ja アラビアチャノキ (Catha edulis) · fi katpensas (Catha edulis) · ru кат (Catha edulis) · fr khat (Catha edulis) · he קאת (Catha edulis) · uk кат (Catha edulis) · et katapõõsas (Catha edulis) · ar قات (Catha edulis) · gl qat (Catha edulis) · sv kat (Catha edulis) · fi kati (Catha edulis) · zu umhlwazi (Catha edulis) · hu kat (Catha edulis) · pl czuwaliczka jadalna (Catha edulis) · cs kata jedlá (Catha edulis) · de Kat (drug) · fr qat (Catha edulis) · th แกต (Catha edulis)