Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

(US campus) a friend.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 102: Homebiscuit [...] and sherlock are all developments of the notion of kinship between people from the same hometown.

see separate entry.

see brew n. (7)

see homeboy n. (1)

(US campus) a male or female homosexual.

1986

Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

(US campus) a friend, usu. of the opposite sex.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 38: Although blends are fashionable in the marketplace, college slang makes little use of this process of word formation, with only about a dozen examples collected since 1972: [...] homechop (homeboy/homegirl + lambchop) ‘endearing term for a close friend, usually of the opposite sex’.

see separate entry.

1. one’s immediate or extended family.

1897		Ironton Co. Register (MO) 30 Dec. 5/3: Charles and Ed Mathews are visting home folks this weekend.
1904		Stanberry Owl-Headlight (MS) 27 Dec. 1/1: Elmer Shisler came up from St Joseph Thursday to visit home folks.
1912		Argus-Leader (Sioux falls, SD) 1 Jan. 9/6: M.D. Oaks of Armour, S.D., spent several dauyys with the home folks this week.

2. people from the area in which one grew up, from one’s home community.

1927		B. Cormack Racket Act II: This ward’s full o’ respectable home-folks.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 172: We all homefolk.
1972		M. Rodgers Freaky Friday 111: Gulfport, Loosiana. We got a real nice little house—real homey-like [...] we’re just home folks.

see home slice

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

(N.Z. prison) a canteen form authorising supplies.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 89/2: home invasion n. a P119, canteen form.

see homegirl n. (1)

(US black) the black area of a city.

1972

D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 68: homeland n. 1. the black section of the city.

(US) a home-made pistol, a ‘zip gun’.

1949		Hal Ellson Duke 75: He can make as pretty a home-made as you want. His brains is in his fingers.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 35: I went up to Bucky’s house to show him a home-made that I had found.

(US campus) unpleasant, depressing feelings.

1973

Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: homemade shit – a lousy, low-down feeling.

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

1. (US) a good friend.

1994

Anniston Star (AL) 16 Jan. 8D/4: Hopefully, I’ll be remembered as a home skillet (a good friend, especially to Southerners).

2. (orig. US black) a fellow black person.

1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: home skillet – friend.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 224: Next time you’re fittin’ to bust an omelet, you best be bringing an egg — Home Skillet!

1. (US campus/prison, also home dirt) someone from one’s town, area, state; ext. to any friend.

1982		Philadelphia Dly News (PA) 19 Feb. 20/1: Except Eva St Girard was no teenage ‘home slice,’ but a 41-year-old grandmother.
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 5: puppy – friendly noun of address [...] Also homeslice.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 38: Home Slice also Home Dirt Someone from the same city, state or geographic region as another person.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: homeslice – a good friend.

2. (US black teen) a fellow black person.

1984		Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 12 Aug. 20/2: ‘There were black guys he was friends with in school’ [...] ‘Home slice,’ they’d call him.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 102: Homeslice [...] and sherlock are all developments of the notion of kinship between people from the same hometown.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 rope Definition: good or amazing. Example: Yo homeslice you gots rope skillz.

3. (US campus) a dull person who rarely goes out.

1992

Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: homeslice – someone who sticks close to home, never goes out, is boring.

see under squeeze n.¹

(US drugs) marijuana grown on private premises.

1985

Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 4 Oct. Today I went to a bush party and bought a dime bag of homestone. It was the best homestone I ever smoked.

1. petting, necking, sexual intercourse.

1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 186: My wife and I want a kid, and we do plenty of homework, but goddamn it, Dutch, I just can’t connect.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 11: Ain’t nobody gon to do my homework.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

2. a girlfriend.

1965		J. O’Grady Aussie Eng. (1966) 79: Sheila. A young female. Also called [...] a ‘fabulous drop’, a ‘slashing line’, a ‘bit of homework’.
[1978		W.D. Myers It Ain’t All for Nothin 44: If a young person was looking out the window, then sometimes the people on the street would say something, especially if it was a girl. ‘Hey, Mama, I sure would like to be doing your homework’ ].

1. (Aus.) to take advantage of; to steal from.

1902		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Feb. 1/1: A well-known amorous detective has been ‘getting home on’ a lady for snubs received.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Dec. 16/3: Occasionally the niggers got home on him for sweet potatoes, and sugar cane, and things; but Smith discouraged them by potting a few and sticking their heads around on the garden fence.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 June 19/1: I was often told that once a camel took a ‘set’ on a man, it would eventually get home on him.

2. to hit, lit. or fig.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Aug. 13/3: Purves Q.C., got home neatly on a Vic doctor during a recent abortion case.

to make an impression on.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 127: got home A telling blow.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 147: Garn, yer young devils [...] You can get ’ome oftener than that.

1. to die.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Oct. 36/2: But he went ‘home’ sooner than he expected. He did not have a blanket to be buried in, so mine was used.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.
1936		W.J. Blackledge Legion of Marching Madmen 204: The child drew a grubby finger across her throat and spat. [...] ‘Gone home, huh? Too bad!’ ‘Gonnome?’ ‘Yeah. Finished. Dead!’ ‘Oui. Dead, dead, dead!’ .

2. (W.I., Gren.) to defame a member of one’s own or someone else’s family.

1978

Torchlight (Gren.) 14 May 1: The two female nurses began cursing each other [...] When one of them decided to ‘go home’ with her remarks, a fight broke out.

to regret one’s actions, to fail badly; thus go crossless home by Woodcock’s cross, to repent and then to be hanged.

1630

J. Taylor ‘Anagrams and Satyrs’ in Works (1869) II 256: Where man doth man within the Law betosse, / Till some go crossless home by Woodcocks Crosse.

(Aus.) safe and sound.

1919

W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 28: home-and-fried — Safe; correct.

1. of a task, accomplished without having to make any real effort, orig. of racehorses.

1930		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 9 Sept. 3/5: If confidence goes for anything then Pentheus is already home and hosed.
1940		New Call & Bailey’s Wkly (Perth) 19 Sept. 8/3: There won't be any clash. Francisco [...] has been scratched, and Royal Step (who incidentally has stud duties listed for him) seems ‘home and hosed’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 89: Home and hosed and home on the pig’s back, said when a task is properly and easily completed.
1966		Aus. Women’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 May 71/5: The warm personality, one that likes and trusts others, is home and hosed in the popularity race .
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 122: Yup. Reckoned we was home an’ hosed. Right through to Berlin.
1993		P. Singer A Companion to Ethics 428: Of course, once we have got such an analysis, naturalism is already home and hosed.
1996		Ozwords Oct. 🌐 A horse which is described as being home and hosed during a race is a certain winner — it will be back in its box before the rest of the field has finished.

2. safe and sound.

1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 206: Pile on a coupla tries and you’ll be home and hosed.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 57/2: home and hosed successfully completed; from horse racing; eg ‘Looks already like John Walker’s home and hosed in the mile’.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 80: Nah, man, no rush. Don’t want to be pulled over for speeding till we’re home and hosed, eh cuz?
2004		Fisher & Ramsay Faith and Reason 56: Even when better understood, we are still not home and hosed.

(US prison) minimum security prison.

1984

Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 31 July B1/5: Home away from home; health resort; summer camp — A minimum security prison [...] where prisoners have more freedom.

a prison.

1910

‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Blokes Outside’ Sporting Times 6 Aug. 1/4: Those who show their skill / In the cracking of a likely crib, or emptying a till, / Were all lodged in Winston’s Homes of Rest, with nought charged on the bill.

see separate entry.

a deliberate misunderstanding of a word or statement, which the speaker is implying to be too ‘clever’ for them to understand.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Jul. 22/1: ‘What’s her name when she’s at home?’ / ‘Her christened name was Alice Donovan, and she never acquired another by matrimonial means.’.
1890		B.L. Farjeon Mystery of M. Felix I 6: And who’s Mr. Felix when he’s at home?
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 118: And who is Popkins when he’s at home?
1948		K.B. Poole ‘The Gift’ in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 33 154: Goums? Wot the ’ell are Goums when they’re at ’ome?
1991		B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 46: What’s that when it’s at home? asked Joe sourly.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 386: ‘Vinegar Strokes? What’s that when it’s at home?’.

a general excl. of contempt or dismissal.

1886		‘’Arry at the Smoking Concert’ in Punch 13 Nov. in P. Marks (2006) 67: And if any juggins objecks to the shindy [...] / I should say, ‘O, go ’ome and eat coke!’.
1887		‘’Arry on His Critics’ in Punch 17 Dec. 280/1: Oh, you go ’ome and eat coke!
1895		W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 78: ‘Oh, go and eat coke,’ I says.
1908		Magnet 20 June 2: ‘Oh, go and eat coke!’ said Nugent.
1911		Gem 30 Sept. 21: Coke!
1920		Marvel 8 May 17: ‘He can go and eat coke!’ growled Bill.
1949		P. Pringle Boy’s Book of Cricket 106: ‘Go and eat coke!’ he snapped.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 104: What’s the good of a holiday if a fellow can’t have his sleep out. Go and eat coke.