1874 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. ix. 272 The Yen is divided into 100 Sen, and the Sen into 10 Rin.

1875 W. S. Jevons Money xii. 147 Even Japan has imitated European nations, and introduced a gold coinage of twenty, ten, five, two, and one-yen pieces, the yen being only three per mille less in value than the American gold dollar.

1883 P. L. Simmonds Commerc. Dict. Trade Products (rev. ed.) Suppl. Yen, a name for the dollar in Japan, in former years worth 3s. 9d., but now only about 3s. 2d.

1904 Times 16 Jan. 11/3 Japan has..specie to the unprecedented amount of 113 million yen, or £11,300,000.

1876 H. A. Giles Chinese Sketches 115 Chinamen ask if an opium-smoker has the yin or not; meaning thereby, has he gradually increased his doses of opium until he has established a craving for the drug.

1891 A. W. Douthwaite Opium Habit 5 The frequent and regular repetition of this process of stimulation and depression induces the ‘ying’, or craving, which is simply a demand by the nervous system for its accustomed stimulant, without which it is unable to properly perform its functions.

1912 D. Lowrie My Life in Prison vii. 79 I even saw two or three guys eat chloride o' lime to stop their yen.

1922 E. F. Murphy Black Candle ii. i. 113 When ‘the black candle’ is ready for lighting and the smoker has the ying upon him—that is to say the mad longing for indulgence—the procedure is like this [etc.].

1929 Light & Torrance in Arch. Internal Med. 43 210 If he falls asleep, which is often the case, he falls into a deep slumber well known as the ‘yen’.

1933 C. de Lenoir Hundredth Man i. 10 I found myself on the Mexican border with a bad ‘yin’, and nothing to relieve me but the native drug marijuana. In New Orleans and other Southern American towns this is known as ‘muggles’, being sold in the form of cigarettes.

1937 A. R. Lindesmith Nature of Opiate Addiction iv. 107 The drug user does not ordinarily find that his efforts to explain what he means by ‘yen’ (which signifies both withdrawal symptoms and desire for opiates) are very successful.

1937 A. R. Lindesmith Nature of Opiate Addiction iv. 107 The drug user says, ‘he wakes up some morning with a yen.’

1948 F. Brown Murder can be Fun v. 78 He hadn't thought Wilkins would know a biological urge from an opium yen.

1974 M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. xiii. 251 Symptoms begin within 8 to 12 hours after the last dose... The addict experiences tearing, a running nose, sweating, yawning, and difficulty in sleeping. This restless sleep is commonly referred to as the ‘yen’.

1906 H. Green At Actors' Boarding House 248 He had a yen to gamble and bet high.

1928 J. O'Connor Broadway Racketeers ix. 107 The kid..had a burning yen for champagne and poker.

1932 S. Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm xx. 267 Ezra, who had a secret yen for horticulture.

1952 Here & Now (N.Z.) Jan. 19 This yen for a dog that will do everything has had a lot to do with the waning of pointers, setters and retrievers.

1961 Time 6 Jan. 4/2 The yen of Christian churchmen for achieving church unity is more pathetic than peculiar to behold.

1967 A. Christie Endless Night ii. 21 He'd got such a yen for a picture that he managed to get the money together.

1983 Listener 7 July 17/3 You write your music because you have a real yen to write it.

1919 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. iii. 93 A great many of them [sc. Chinese words] have remained California localisms, among them such verbs as to yen (to desire strongly, as a Chinaman desires opium).

1935 N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 80 He's yenning for morph.

1936 F. M. Ford Let. 6 Sept. (1965) 261 Not that I particularly yen to mention the Deity, but that I believe that publishers should be as sadistically punished as possible.

1936 E. Pound Let. Sept. (1971) 282 Am afraid I got 'em stuck with some bad grub, but it was the only place I cd. count on being open... The violin player yenned toward another place, where I thought they wd. git stuck a price.

1953 W. S. Burroughs Junkie vi. 64 Nick is followed all the time now. You know yourself when a guy is yenning, he doesn't look behind him. He's running.

1977 Times 11 Feb. 12/2 The need for new educational certainties..cannot be met by yenning for the relative simplicities of the old ‘elementary’ education.

1975 H. White Raincoast Chron. (1976) 147/1 ‘We brought a bit of shit in with us to taper off on... Too bad she's all gone.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Pat longingly, ‘I sure get yenny sometimes.’

1926 J. Colton Shanghai Gesture iii. 188 [Servant enters with..opium...] Here's the yen!

1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 135/1 Yen in the cheek, gum opium or yen shee placed and sucked in back of lower teeth which produces comfort to the addict (this is frequently used when traveling in public conveyances).

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §509/2 Opium..yen.

1882 H. H. Kane Opium-smoking iii. 35 The other articles..for a smoker's outfit are..a needle (yen hauck) on the end of which the opium is taken up, ‘cooked’, and placed over the small opening in the upper surface of the bowl.

1886 T. F. Byrnes Professional Crim. of Amer. 385 Among the frequenters of his place could be seen..such noted characters as..‘Yen Hock’ Harry, who earned his title by stabbling a man with a ‘yen hock’.

1909 I. L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville ii. v. 176 The needle or yen hok is merely a short knitting needle, sometimes with a handle.

1926 Variety 29 Dec. 7/4 The dopes and hop heads, with their ‘stem’, ‘yen hok’, [etc.].

1955 U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) VIII. 4162 Yen hock, a long needle-shaped instrument, flat on one end and used to roll the ‘pill’ and hold same for cooking.

1968–70 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) 3–4 140 Yen hok, n., a slender needle used in preparing opium for smoking. (Drug users' jargon).

1901 C. R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 215 It consists of the ‘yen hop’, or pipe, usually made of a section and a half of heavy bamboo.

1918 F. Hunt Blown in by Draft iii. 60 In the rare old fiction days ‘corking a pill’ had to do with yen hop, today it tells of naught but rolling a cigarette.

1934 Detective Fiction Weekly 21 Apr. 114/1 Yen pok, pill of opium after being prepared for smoking.

1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 135/1 Yen pock, a cooked opium pill often eaten by addicts to produce normalcy and temporary relief.

1946 M. Mezzrow & B. Wolfe Really Blues xiv. 249 We'd..pack along some yen pox (opium pills that you eat).

1955 U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) 8 4161 Opium in the underworld is referred to by various names. For instance, ‘mud’, ‘tar’, ‘black stuff’, ‘hop’, ‘pen yan’ and ‘yen pocks’.

1959 W. S. Burroughs Naked Lunch 12 Yen pox is the ash of smoked opium.

1882 H. H. Kane Opium-smoking iii. 35 A straight and curved knife for cleaning the bowl of the ash (yen tshi) that rapidly collects and renders the pipe foul.

1892 H. Campbell Darkness & Daylight xxviii. 565 And a little box of tin held the yen she or bits of refuse opium.

1901 C. R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 215 The ‘yen she gow’, or small chisel, for cleaning out the bowl of the pipe.

1912 A. H. Lewis Apaches N.Y. xi. 229 Number-one hop is $87.50 a can, an' yee-chee..not less'n $32.

1918 Policeman's Monthly Oct. 16/3 In answer to this, it was learned that fifty-eight began by smoking opium..eight ate morphine, three ate ‘yen shee’, the ashes of opium, and the remaining cases started by using cocaine and laudanum, or eating opium.

1947 A. Meyers in J. H. Jackson San Francisco Murders 291 Liu uttered..a pathetic plea that he be allowed his daily pipe of ‘yen~shee’ or opium.

1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden xix. 219 Odors from Chinatown, roasting pork and punk and black tobacco and yen shi.

1882 H. H. Kane Opium-smoking iii. 35 The whole pipe is called the Yen Tsiang, or opium pistol.

1909 J. S. Thompson Chinese viii. 336 At last its consistency suits. He places the gummy head on the large flute-like pipe, or yen siang (smoking pistol).