reefer

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːfɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːfə/

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• Rhymes: -iːfə(ɹ)
• Homophone: refer

From reef +‎ -er.

reefer (plural reefers)

1. (nautical) Someone who reefs sails, especially a midshipman.
   • 1922, Katherine Mansfield, ‘Prelude’, Oxford 2002 (Selected Stories), p. 85:

     Her reefer cap was all on one side and on her cheek there was the print of an anchor button she had pressed on while sleeping.

   • 1905, John Masefield, Sea Life in Nelson's Times, p. 27:

     The mess table, at which the reefers and mates made merry, was fixed in the middle of the berth.

2. A reefer jacket; a close-fitting jacket or short coat of thick cloth.

• reefer jacket

Clipping of refrigerator.

reefer (plural reefers)

1. (colloquial, chiefly US) A refrigerated, insulated trailer, ship or shipping container.
   • 1975, C.W. McCall and Chip Davis (lyrics), “Convoy”, in Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

     Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
     In a Kenworth pullin' logs.
     Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
     And a Jimmy haulin' hogs.

   • 1988, Jane Stern & Michael Stern, A taste of America, →ISBN, page 41:

     Next to the cash register, a bulletin board was thumbtacked with notes from deadheaders who needed loads heading west, and shippers looking for a reefer (refrigerated truck) going down to Florida.

2. (rail transport, US) a refrigerator car (type of boxcar).

Uncertain. Perhaps from Mexican Spanish grifa (“cannabis”) or Central American Spanish grifo (“someone who smokes cannabis”).

reefer (countable and uncountable, plural reefers) (slang)

1. (countable) A marijuana cigarette.
2. (uncountable) Marijuana.
   • 1982, Edward G. Fletcher; Melle Mel (lyrics and music), “The Message”, in The Message, performed by Grandmaster Flash:

     Daddy I don't want to go to school because the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool and all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper if I just got a job learned to be a street sweeper.

• (marijuana cigarette): See also Thesaurus:marijuana cigarette, Appendix:Cannabis slang

• Ferree, free-er, freeër