Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US gay) the world of homosexuality.

1969

C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 167: My wife? I put her down before I came to the World.

2. (US) the world as lived outside an institution, e.g. the army, a prison.

1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 220: When I knew you in the World.
1968		Army Times ‘Army Talk in Vietnam’ 10 Apr. n.p.: The World (always capitalized): the U.S.A. As in, ‘Where you from back in The World, Sarge?’.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 72: Snake looked at him, almost envious. And now he’s going back to the World.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 56: The Nam and The World; nothing else exists for us.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 47: You’re short. Rotate back to the World. Cut yourself a piece of slack.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 World: Home, the outside world, as ‘When I get back to the world . . .’.
2004		(con. 1950s) W. Gray posting on ADS-L 🌐 The officers and the long-service NCO’s in command [...] referred to the US as ‘The States’ or as the ‘Land of the Big PX,’ whereas the ‘United States Colored Troops,’ to revive a term from the Civil War, referred to the US as ‘The World.’.
2005		W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 60: ‘You in the slam and we’re in the world,’ Rise said.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] [H]e gets on the horn and calls Darnell. ‘I’m out.’ ‘Welcome back to the world, my brother’.

3. (US) everything.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 10: ‘Hey Scar, what’s up?’ ‘World’s tired, man, trying to keep the monkey off my back.’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 4: Taking a megachomp of a weenie extra the world.