Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also home-buddy) someone who stays mainly at home.

1886		Ruskin Præterita (1978) 189: Both despised me, as a home-boy, to begin with; Kynaston with justice .
1889		Eve. World (NY) 20 Apr. 2/4: Old Homeboy — [...] Excuse me to-night: I am such a foolish old homebody.
1921		Z.N. Hurston John Redding Goes to Sea (1995) 931: Ef he wuz uh home-buddy he’d be drove ’way by you all’s racket.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 35: Now Homey was a Home Boy, a strictly Hometown Square.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 242: homeboy/homegirl 1. One who spends much time at home. 2. One who is under the domination and control of the mother.

2. a neighbourhood person [homeboy originated in the South and was used by all races before it migrated, with the black population, to the urban ghettos; its modern use in rap music has rendered it once again trans-cultural].

1899		Colored American 15 Nov. 3/3: The ‘home-boys’ with the Williams and Walker aggregation were sore over the frost they met with in the proud city of Washington .
1904		Colored American (Wash., DC) 12 Nov. 7/1: Mr West is one of the home boys, and is popular with the home folks.
1914		Princeton Union (Minn.) 4 June 8/2: Foley’s star slab artist, Kasner, will be on the firing line for the Irish, and Wilkes will heave them over for the home boys.
1927		Macon Tel. (GA) 9 Oct. (in Tosches 2001) n.p.: The overflowing crowd’s response to Miller could not be attributed solely to his being a ‘home boy’ said the reviewer.
c.1930		in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1977) 140: The home boys all laughed like hell when they heard that joke [about incest in Arkansas families].
1933		‘Paul Cain’ ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 3: He was sitting in a stud game with five of the home boys.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 111: One of my homeboys came in last week.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 24: Homeboy tried to make a go of it but his whole body was stiff.
1987		(con. 1950s) G. Moloi My Life 122: To our great relief ‘The Army’ had arrived. Scaru, Puru, Toffie, Play and a lot more of our home boys from the ‘Rough House’.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 24: His heavily armed and highly motivated reinforced rifle squad of homeboys will go back to the block.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 5: ‘Homeboy’, ‘homie’. Even that word, such a staple of hip-hop vocabulary, works to join men to a location.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 275: They were black kids. Homeboys.

3. a naïve person, newly arrived in the city from the countryside.

1933		S. Walker Night Club Era 84: [T]he staid home boy, who lived with his family out in Queens County, but who [...] embezzled, over a period of many years, more than $60,000 which he spent in night clubs.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 70: This homeboy was anything but slick.

4. a good friend; thus as a term of address.

1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 56: What’s th’ long face fer, home boy?
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 93: Look, homeboy, talk to him, or have him get in touch with me.
1988		Ice-T ‘Personal’ 🎵 Homeboys, you know the situation.
1993		L. Rodríguez Always Running (1996) 57: Leave the vato alone, homeboy.
1998		Source Nov. 164: ‘He’s come a long way,’ says Bizzy’s longtime homeboy Big B.
2005		Guardian G2 6 Dec. 36: I don’t care if Jesus is Your Homeboy.
2012		NY Times 26 Jan. 🌐 I like the word ‘homeboy’ cause I have alot of them. It means the boy is close to you and you’ve known him for a while.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘As the saying goes, homeboy [...] that ship has sailed’.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 233: ‘[W]hat he gonna do to us for killing his homeboy’.

5. (S.Afr./US) someone who has come to the city from the same rural or provincial area as oneself; see also homegirl n.

1963		Wilson & Mafeje Langa 180: A home-boys’ clique co-operates with other like cliques for arbitration in disputes.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 169: ‘I can tell you’re from New York, and,’ he added, looking at Brew, ‘you’re not.’ ‘Yuh right,’ Brew said, ‘Ah’s a home boy’.
1973		M. Dikobe Marabi Dance 41: He saw that some of his old ‘home-boys’ [...] had come to visit him.
1984		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: homeboy – male from the same town.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 25: (H)ome-bwoy one’s country man.
2003		T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 201: We’re homeboys. I grew up on Thirty-fifth Street, two blocks over [from him].

6. (Irish) an ex-inmate of a religious institution.

1963

J. McGahern Barracks [ebook] Labourers hired out for their lives from the religious institutions that reared them to farmers, homeboys, were known to have as few as 5 cars behind their deal coffins .

7. (US black) a young black or Hispanic member of a street gang, occas. Aus.; also attrib.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1987		King Tee & Mixmaster Spade ‘Ya Better Bring a Gun’ 🎵 Now Compton is the city where the homeboys stay / Rollin in a different car everyday.
1999		Guardian 2 Sept. 12: Small Latino ‘homeboy’ dolls said to resemble street gang members.
2000		Indep. 17 Jan. 18: These guys are more than Tyson’s homeboys.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] [D]rinking elbow to elbow with backpackers full of drink and western suburbs home-boys full of attitude.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 468: Cyrus has homeboys. The Asians are a gang.

8. (US black) a fellow black person.

1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 225: Say D, do all home boys shoot like that?
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 188: ‘I thought you liked eatin like a home boy, Spermwhale,’ Calvin Potts grined.
1980		M. Melamu ‘Bad Times, Sad Times’ in Mutloatse Forced Landing 41: My two home-boys, Cy and Biza are making my troubles the bus-stop gossip [...] They are talking full-blast, real township style. No inhibitions, my bla.
1989		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 5: home boy/home girl – a friend.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 170: Anything you need, homeboy, just let us know.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Homeboy. Homeslice. Milquetoast.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘C’mon [...] do a homeboy a solid’.