Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. feeling like home, thus comfortable, secure.

1856		C. Kingsley in Life (1877) I. 488: As I get old, somehow, I don’t like new places. I like to feel ‘homey’ wherever I be.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 335: These were ‘homey’ – currants, gooseberries, strawberries – delightful to see, smell, and taste.
1915		R.P. Hamilton diary 22 June 🌐 Up 8 o’clock; breakfast. Inspected platoon; very slack. Beautiful roses; felt very ‘homey’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 321: One of those barnlike Structures never seems homey.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 22: Gordon put on his homey library manner.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 63: That, and the homey atmosphere.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 144: The other girl, the homey one, makes him go.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 256: It’s nice and homey and boho quaint, North Beach.
1972		M. Rodgers Freaky Friday 111: We got a real nice little house — real homey-like.
1988		T. Harris Silence of the Lambs (1991) 26: Homey brown-checked curtains.
1999		Guardian G2 10 Nov. 9: Keep their dialogue homey and conversational.

2. homely, conventional, dominated by ‘family values’.

1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 9: I’d like my girl to be a quiet homey girl, not like these young women nowadays.
1927		(con. 1920s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 453: Well, it’s my wife’s birthday, and we’ve always made rather a holiday of it — we’re proud of being an old-fashioned homey family.

3. (US) behaving like a black person who is from the ‘ghetto’ [homey n.¹ (3)].

2001

J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 277: McCardle jumped. ‘I didn’t do none of those!’ ‘Any,’ Manny corrected. ‘Don’t go homey on me.’.