Etymology

Noun

1. a pipe with a long flexible tube that draws the smoke through water. Originally invented in India, it gained most popularity in the Arab world. It is traditionally used for smoking tobacco, which is often flavored.

Synonyms

• hubble-bubble
• hubbly
• hubbly-bubbly, hubbly bubbly
• narghile
• nargila
• sheesha
• shisha

Quotations

• 1831 — The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction

  In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw the smoke from.

• 1960 — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, ch 9

  When Uncle Jack caught me, he kept me laughing about a preacher who hated going to church so much that every day he stood at his gate in his dressing-gown, smoking a hookah and delivering five-minute sermons to any passers-by who desired spiritual comfort.