Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US prison) a cellmate.

1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 30: Frankie, my ‘cellie,’ said that if I wanted a shower I’d have to scramble for it.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 200: celly, n. – cell partner.
1979		(con. 1969) Pepper & Pepper Straight Life 397: Hey, your cellie’s asleep.
1986		J. Ellroy Silent Terror 66: The nods I got when I spoke the words [...] told me that none of my ‘cellies’ could risk voicing disbelief.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 38: Cellie also Cell Mate and Cell Partner Someone who shares cell with another person.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 240: A celly I had in Lewisburg, he had a brother did hard time down in Texas.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 49: My cellmate, Kansas (‘cellie,’ he explained, is the proper prison term for a roommate), says I’m too mature to be a prime target for unsolicited affections.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 25: The rabbi, he’s so tortured by his celly [etc.].
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 127: One of my celly’s just told me you were sky writing her.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] Either converse with your cellie – speak seven different kinds of shit, didn’t matter – or even better, go inside yourself.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] [H]is celly, a Dominican who was in for installing secret compartments in dealers’ rides.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘You’re my cellie, so no one fucks with you’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 260: The cunts had to carry him out, says his celly.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 140: ‘[M]y cellie says he taught this cockroach to jump and roll over’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 50: I jumped up in horror. I got out of bed and my celly was like, what happened?

2. (US) ext. to general, non-prison use, a friend.

2000		P. Beatty Tuff 152: You niggers ain’t shit. I need some new cellies.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Celly. Salty. Polly. Gully.

3. (US und.) a cell-phone.

2019

D. Winslow Border [ebook] Nico might have been the best cell-phone booster Calle 18 ever had [...] There was money in cellies.