beedi

beedi

English

Alternative forms

• beedie, bidi

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi बीड़ी (bīṛī).

Noun

beedi (plural beedis)

1. A thin, often flavored, Indian cigarette made of tobacco wrapped in a tendu leaf.
   • 1990, Charles Bukowski, letter, 15 September, in On Writing, Canongate 2016, p. 198:

     I always write with the music on and a bottle of good red. And smoke Mangalore Ganesh beedies.

   • 2022 June 6, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, “Indian director receives threats over film poster of goddess with Pride flag”, in The Guardian‎, Guardian Media Group, retrieved 2022-06-06:

     She said: “In rural Tamil Nadu, the state I come from, Kaali is believed to be a pagan goddess. She eats meat cooked in goat’s blood, drinks arrack, smokes beedi [cigarettes] and dances wild … that is the Kaali I had embodied for the film.”