Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(W.I.) food that supposedly contains ‘magic’ ingredients that will influence a man to choose a particular woman.

1953		cited in E. Mittelholzer Life and Death of Sylvia 12: Some said that Charlotte and her godmother worked obeah on him to catch him as a husband. They had put ‘stay-at-home’ in his food, people said. A concoction of musk and asafoetida and boiled bush.
1996		Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage 529/1: stay at home (stay home sauce/soup/tea) [...] bad-food.

1. (drugs) usu. in pl., any form of stimulant, e.g. amphetamine.

1936		Albuqerque Jrnl (NM) 26 Dec. 3/2: [headline] Boy Takes Stay-Awake Pills, Sees Real Santa.
1951		Medford Mail Trib. (OR) 1 Nov. 16/3: Other pupils tell her to take [...] stay-awake tablets.
1958		Auburn Jrnl (CA) 14 Aug. 26/6: Tranquilisers and stay-awake pills can be deadly.
1961		Jackson Sun (TN) 23 Aug. 3/5: A Nasshville druggist friend has given him three stay-awake pills.
1969		R.H. Blum Students and Drugs 86: Those who do not use the stay-awakes are lowest in the proportion having experience with every class of drugs.
1969		Cole & Wittenborn Drugs Abuse 74: Friends are the primary source of beer, wine, spirits, tobacco, stay-awakes in general, amphetamines specifically.
1973		J.J. Conger Adolesescence and Youth 417: They are more likely to use ‘stay-awakes’ (i.e. amphetamines).
1977		Detroit Free Press (MI) 18 Aug. 17/1: A truckload of Stay-Awake Powders.
1981		Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA) 4 Mar. Caffeine [...] a common ingredient in [...] stay-awake pills: .
1990		D. Simmons Hyperion 271: I haven’t slept for two days [...] Been taking stay-awakes.
2002		B. Jeapes Xenocide Mission 101: He had been on the stay-awakes too long.

2. (US) one who stays up late at night.

1970

D. Jenkins Dogged Victims 242: Surviving another evening on the town, the final triumph, would be shared with Marr by such stay-awakes as [etc].

(US black) a devotee of social life, a ‘man-about-town’.

1935		Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 18 May 5/1: The wives now think he is a stay-outer.
1964		R.D. Abrahams Deep Down in the Jungle 192: ‘Now all you no-good, you midnight ramblers, alcoholics, late players, out-stayers, wife-beaters, children deserters, get over on the other side of the room’.

(US prison) to maintain one’s role as a professional criminal/gangster.

1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 164: To come back showed a willingness to ‘stay down.’.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Stay Down: (1) Engage in a fight to prove one’s manhood. (TX). (2) To stay by one’s side and support a prisoner / loved one in various ways.

(US black) to remain inconspicuous, to behave normally; also as a parting expression.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 255: stay down low 1. Remain inconspicuous. 2. Assume mainstream appearances.
1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 49: stay down [...] ‘You say “I’m fittin’ to bale”, you home boy say “stay down”.’.

see stand hitched under stand v.²

see separate entries.

(US teen) goodbye, see you later.

1998

M. Ferguson ‘Unstoppable Sl.’ in Columbia Missourian 19 Oct. 1A; 8A: stay up – a parting phrase, ‘See you later!’.

1. (US) to court.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US) of food, to assuage or satisfy one’s hunger.

1891

S. Fiske Holiday Stories 128: Stew’s good, but they don’t stay wid yer. Kin I have somethink solid? [DA].

3. to keep up with, to persist in an endeavour.

1887		F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 177: But they couldn’t bluff the old man off; he stayed with them.
1907		J. London Road 167: He could not run so fast as I, but he stayed with it [DA].
1925		K. Mullen ‘Westernisms’ in AS I:3 153: A man will say to a youngster at some task, ‘Stay with it, son!’.
2000		W.D. Myers ‘The Streak’ in 145th Street 69: Carver is supposed to kill us. [...] But somehow our team stays with them.

4. to have sexual intercourse.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 95: ‘I haven’t been stayed with in a long time,’ she answered. [Ibid.] 123: ‘It’s twins,’ [the doctor] announced to the waiting father. Perkins face registered perplexity and vexation. ‘But, doctor,’ he explained, ‘I only stayed with my wife once!’.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 159: They asked him [...] where he had been, hinting that he had probably been out getting ‘stayed with’.