The Hookah Is Alive Or Dead

[0935]

Hi. Is it OK to use Alive/dead to say "Hookah is alive or dead" meaning:

* (I’m/not) getting enough smoke.

* (not) getting thick smoke.

* (It) makes thick smoke.

* (It)doesn't make thick smoke.

* Hookah is/isn't not producing enough smoke.

How about Pipes or cigarettes?


How does this sentence sound to you/Native English Speakers?
What do you suggest? The hookah is lit/out?

Note: In order for a hookah to reach its highest point and produce thick smoke, one should inhale the smoke through the hose several times. If one does not inhale for a minute tobacco will not get enough heat and does not produce thick smoke again.

[Mamyalynne]

Hookahs pipe is blocked.

[sandyRoe]

If you weren't getting enough smoke you could say: The Hookah isn't drawing properly.

[BlackadderV]

Do you mean Hookah or Hooker?

[sandyRoe]

Dead, a hooker wouldn't be much use

[Frank97]

"Hookah is alive or dead", says it needs refilling to me.

[Frank97]

Sorry, Hookah is dead!

[BlackadderV]

//If you weren't getting enough smoke you could say: The Hookah isn't drawing properly.//

No, I shall resist the temptation...

[DTCwordfan]

I've smoked plenty of hookahs in my time and after reading this, I'm not sure if I am sane. Must have been the cannabis in that Cairo market and the Taif mountains.

[0935]

//If you weren't getting enough smoke you could say: The Hookah isn't drawing properly.//
Thanks sandyRoe but it means, something stuck in it!

[0935]

//Hookahs pipe is blocked. //
it is not blocked it doesn't produce enough smoke because of lack of heat.

[tonyav]

Hookah is not lit properly.

[Frank97]

The hookah needs a few good draws to get it going properly.?

[Hypognosis]

The Hookah is an inanimate object, so alive/dead would be a figurative usage and you can only learn by experience which articles are considered to be 'alive', when functioning correctly. If you said an armchair was alive or dead, people will think you are peculiar, or that English was a second language, which you were still learning. If a room lacked echoes (reverberation), we would say it "sounds dead". (Note: the opposite situation would be "sounds normal", rather than "sounds live").

Cigarettes are described as lit, lighted, burning or out, extinguished, rather than alive/dead. Despite that, the hookah could be regarded as a device/machine and produces something very visible so many would regard it as much alive as a computer or their car.

Your use of language therefore tells the reader whether you are one of these people who regard (some) inanimate objects as having a life of their own.