stim n.

a (chemical) stimulant; something containing a stimulant; see also stim pill, stimtab

Earliest in stim pill n.
OED records an 1882 example in the sense ‘an alcoholic drink’.

Drugs

  • [1948 R. S. Shaver Mandark in The Shaver Mystery Magazine vii. 8 page image Richard S. Shaver

    Too, she learned how to appear vastly more beautiful by playing steadily over herself a flood of antique sex-stimulative rays, the ‘stim’ of modern secret science.]

  • 1950 R. Ashby The Merchant of Venus in Other Worlds Nov. 45/1 page image Richard Ashby bibliography

    I reached into a nearby drawer and took out a handful of stim pills which I began eating like candy. They nerved me to change the distasteful subject.

  • 1953 S. J. Byrne Power Metal in Other Worlds June 13/2 page image S. J. Byrne bibliography

    What kind of stims do you smoke?

  • 1970 F. Herbert Whipping Star in Worlds of If Jan. 8/2 page image Frank Herbert bibliography

    He examined his toolkit—a selection of stims, plastipicks, explosives in various denominations, raygens, multigoggles, penetrates, a wad of uniflesh, solvos, miniputer, [etc.].

  • 1985 F. Herbert Chapterhouse: Dune xii. 86 page image Frank Herbert bibliography

    She sampled the drink. Stimtea and melange! I’m hungry. Lucilla returned an empty glass to the tray. The stim on her tongue smelled sharply of melange.

  • 1996 A. Julian Blowup in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May 18 page image Astrid Julian bibliography

    Lanie Graham, Station’s doctor…handed Charlotte two small envelopes, one blue and one yellow, each filled with metabolic regulators to help the commissioners adjust to the long lunar night. ‘Start them on the first yellow tablet after lunch. Food will help absorb the first jolt of the day-stims. The blue tablets at bedtime.’

  • 2010 V. Heppner Bio-Weapon xv. 89 page image Vaughn Heppner bibliography

    Halfway there he palmed another stim, knowing the price his body would soon demand, or even worse that he would give himself a heart attack.

  • 2013 M. Broaddus I Can Transform You in J. Shurin The Big Book of Cyberpunk (2023) 708 page image Maurice Broaddus bibliography

    They had made a name for themselves as major Stim traffickers, and Duppy had hooked up with them. High on Stim, he proved less reasonable than usual.

  • 2019 C. Wright The Hollow Mountain (Warhammer 40,000: Vaults of Terror) vi. 63 page image Chris Wraight bibliography

    Of course, few living humans had ever laid eyes on a porcine. Unless they worked on an agri world, they would never have encountered one of those bloated and obese sacks of stimm-injected muscle and sinew, too colossal to walk without breaking their spindly legs and force-fed high-nutrient chemsoup to keep them growing in the pens.


Research requirements

antedating 1953

Earliest cite

S. J. Byrne, in Other Worlds

Research History
Clive Shergold submitted a number of cites.

Last modified 2026-03-10 13:03:34
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.