chain smoke

chain smoke

To smoke cigarettes continuously, such that one begins a new cigarette as (or almost as) soon as the last one is extinguished. My grandmother died of emphysema after chain smoking for most of her adult life. Because I was anxiously chain smoking, I lit a fresh cigarette with the end of my last one and barely even realized I was doing it. Would you quit chain smoking like that? Give your lungs a break, sheesh.

See also: chain, smoke

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

chain(-smoke)

in. to smoke cigarette after cigarette. (As if each cigarette were a link in a chain.) I never wanted to chain-smoke, but I got addicted.

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.