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I was writing a short story about an American in which the guy who has quit smoking, feels a strong craving for smoking after a couple of days that he has given up smoking. I wonder what is the casual way to say you want to smoke a cigarette when you have not smoked for say a day or two days?

I came across the following terms but as you know the Urban Dictionary (their providing source) is not as reliable as an authoritative dictionary should be. Also, I need an/a expression / idiom / slang that is understood by everyone in AmE:

  1. I'm nicing over here, man! Give me a cigarette!
  1. If I don't get a cigarette soon I'm gonna start nic-fittin.

Please let me know about it.

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  • Is this for a piece of fiction?
    – James K
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 16:22
  • How come James?
    – A-friend
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 21:16
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    I doubt you'd be in this situation in real life. If so you don't need to say anything. You certainly don't need a particularly casual way to communicate this. You can just say "I want to smoke. I've not had a cigarette for two days". It is natural and normal. But if you're writing a story you might want a character that speaks slang. So the answer "I'm jonesing.." is good if you are writing a story, but not if you are talking to an American (it would sound fake, because it is)
    – James K
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 21:26
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    Good point James. You said it. I was writing a short story about an American in which the guy who has quit smoking, feels a strong craving for smoking after a couple of days that he has given up smoking. I know the idiom in three other languages. For instance, Russians say: "у меня ломка потому что сильно хочу курить" or in Persian they say: "Man nasakhe sigaram" or in Turkish they say: "Gerçekten sigara içmek istiyorum...," however, I was not quite syre about Am. English!
    – A-friend
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 21:57

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I don't know of a specific term for a cigarette, but it is AmE slang to say, "I am jonesing for..." anything that you have a particularly strong craving for or addiction to. According to the link above, this slang originated among heroin addicts, but it is used for other things now, so you can say,

"I'm really jonesing for a cigarette! Can I bum one off you?"

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  • Thank you very much @Canadian Yankee, but how about "I'm feening for a cig"?
    – A-friend
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 21:14
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    @A-friend I’ve never heard “feening”; “jonesing” is what you want.
    – StephenS
    Commented Dec 13, 2020 at 22:13
  • I've never heard "feening" before.
    – Canadian Yankee
    Commented Dec 14, 2020 at 1:34

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