ho n.1
1. a generic term describing any woman [ostensibly neutral, but the undertones of its ety. still make it controversial].
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Deep Down In The Jungle 36: You go over to a who’s house (any woman is a ‘who’) and say, ‘lookahere, bitch, when I say jump you jump’. | |
| ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 304: Let me cop a Benny Franklin until my whoe brings me some dough. | |
| Giveadamn Brown (1997) 61: ‘You two ’ho’s still pushing your meth?’ she said conversationally. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 143: We call all young lady bitch or ’ho. But not to dey face. | |
| ‘Six in the Morning’ 🎵 As we walked over to here hoe continued to speak. | |
| ‘Ain’t No Fun’ 🎵 So how the fuck am I supposed / to pay this hoe, just to lay this hoe. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Observer Mag. 15 Aug. 8: Women are routinely referred to as ‘bitches’ and ‘ho’s’. | |
| Westsiders 53: ‘Hoes’, a popular corruption of ‘whores’, is loosely used to mean most of womankind. | |
| ‘In da Club’ 🎵 When you sell like Eminem, and the hoes they wanna fuck / But homie ain’t nothing change, hoe’s down, G’s up. | |
 | Hunter and Ashby 149: Nikki pushed Ace away and stepped to Paulines face. ‘Who you calling bitch, you nappy-headed crack ho!’. | |
| Times (London) 12 Apr. 2/7: An American ‘shock-jock’, has been suspended from his show on CBS Radio [...] after calling members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team ‘nappy-headed hos’. |
2. (orig. US black) a prostitute.
| ‘The Game’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out (1972) 392: ‘Let me cop a Benny Franklin until my whoes brings me some dough,’ I said. | |
| Riot (1967) 130: They’re always talkin’ about their ‘white hoes’ like every white whore on the street is hustlin’ for a shine [...] Those jailhouse spooks are all the same – big-time pimps. | |
| Howard Street 15: ‘Whore’ – he pronounced it ‘Ho’ – ‘I said gimme my money back’. | |
| (con. 1945) Gather Together In My Name 162: When you turn the first trick, you’ll be a ’ho. A stone ’ho. | |
| On the Stroll 7: Wasn’t every chick a potential ho? | |
| House of Slammers 7: It’s gittin’ cold as a black whoe’s heart in this yard. | |
| Chili 43: A perverse streak of ’hoe that I had sensed in her. | |
| Homeboy 95: Now one day Dolomite took a stroll / Run on Mabel, Queen of the hos. | |
| Westsiders 53: Killing Hoes Over Pussy. That’s what Khop’s name stood for. | |
| Keisha the Sket (2021) 51: ‘Iz nt mine, gt out u hoe’. | |
| Guardian 10 July 3: He [...] labelled a conservative female columnist a ‘skanky ho’, or dirty prostitute. | |
| Running the Books 55: You fucking cunt ass ho, you got the stinkiest damn pussy in this whole place. | |
| Running the Books 59: She also informed me [...] that ‘hoes makes the best librarians’. | |
| theculturetrip.com ‘Guide to London Slang 10 Jan. 🌐 Ho – another word for slag, prostitute. |
3. (US gay) a passive sexual partner.
| Queens’ Vernacular 146: passive partner [...] hoe (black sl = whore). |
4. a person indiscreet in sexual matters.
| Campus Sl. Nov. 5: ho – indiscreet and promiscuous in sexual matters, usually a male. |
5. (US black) a sexually promiscuous man.
| ‘Super Hoe’ 🎵 The super hoe is loose in your section / and he’s armed with a powerful erection / So grab your girl and run for protection. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 87: See him? The little ho will go with anyone [...] Just like his father. | |
| Razorblade Tears 129: [of a homosexual man] ‘You’ve got to stop being a ho if you want a husband’. |
6. (US black/campus) a promiscuous or seductively dressed young woman.
| Sl. U. 108: ho 1. slutty woman, whore, promiscuous woman. | |
| Source Nov. 83: Hos [...] the female who usually gets ‘test driven’ with no feelings, no respect, no nothing. | |
| Campus Sl. Fall 5: HO – A female thought to be promiscuous. |
7. a girlfriend.
| Da Bomb Summer Supplement 8: Ho [...] 2. (n.) (Offensive, derog.) Girlfriend. | |
| Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 26: I went with my new hoe, Astrid. | |
| Deuce’s Wild 7: You know when we got here, his ’ho was here too. At least I think she’s his ’ho. | |
| On the Bro’d 246: ‘You’re a totally dickless pussy if you ever put a ho before a bro’. |
8. (US black) a coward, i.e. a man who acts like a woman.
| in Source June 34: I refuse to be a hoe. | |
| Rope Burns 150: He a ho what he was, a ho looking for Santa Claus, a little gangsta punk looking for a sugar daddy. Scared of white boys, too. |
9. an unfriendly person, either male or female.
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 hoe [...] 2. an unfriendly person, usually a female. (‘She is such a hoe’.). | |
| Guardian Guide 22–28 Jan. 28: The ho has problems, I’m telling you. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 236: ‘You two-faced ho! Y’all got my goat, m’kay? Y’all done curried my motherfucking goat!’. |
10. (US campus) a form of friendly address.
| Campus Sl. Fall 5: HO – a friend: ‘What’s up, HO?’. | |
| Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 7 Aug. 25/5: ‘Hey slut / (ho) Wanna go shopping?’. |
In compounds
(US black) a general term of address, used of a man .
| ‘Bitch Ass Niggaz’ 🎵 That’s what’s wrong with you niggaz, you niggaz is just like bitches / Hoe-ass niggaz, talk too motherfuckin much. |
(US) a derog. term for a woman.
| Post-Standard (Syracuse N.Y.) 15 Feb. B1/4: If it’s a girl, you might call her a ho or ho bag. It stems from whore, but don’t get too literal [OED]. | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 3: ho – sexually promiscuous female. Also ho-bag. | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 169: You can’t just kill her! She’s not some ho-bag, man, she’s the mayor. | |
| Mean Girls [movie script] [S]he may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing, slut-faced ho-bag. But in reality, she is so much more than that. |
(US campus) a general negative when applied to any woman .
| Da Bomb Summer Supplement 8: Ho-bitch (n.) {Vulgar} A girl who is disliked. |
(US black) ostentatiously sexy, high, tight, high-heeled woman’s boots.
| Pillow Book 🌐 I did get to see the Zeffirelli production of La Bohéme at The Met, and I did get to buy some ‘ho’ boots at Macy’s on the East Coast. |
(US black) the vagina.
| Rap Dict. 🌐 ho cake (n) Vagina. |
(US black) a smart suit.
| Airtight Willie and Me 30: Play your ass off in any and all of them sixty ’ho catchers hanging in my closet. |
(US prison) an emotional/physical trial of strength to determine one’s courage or lack of it.
| Last Burn in Hell 16: The two women stare each other down briefly, mad-dogging it [...] For a second it looks like hoe check time. |
(US black) a successful pimp or womanizer .
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 hoejockey Definition: someone who pimps a lot of bitches or macks a lot; a very reputable playa Example: Shit nigga, picture me rollin down Beach Blvd. like a mothafuckin hoejockey; all tha bitches be up on my shit. |
1. one who conducts most (or all) of his sex life with prostitutes.
| cited in Juba to Jive (1994). |
2. a womanizer, a ladies’ man.
| ‘Run a Train’ 🎵 on Ghetty Green [album] It’s the drink player, ho layer, money making bitch breaker / Take a ho straight to the room and I save a spot for my row dogs. |
(orig. US black pimp) the street or streets in a town or city where prostitutes work regularly .
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Western Canadian Jrnl Anthropology 3 108: The streetwalker, as her name implies, walks the street in the recognized sections of a town, ‘the ho stroll,’ or stands on a particular street corner or in a doorway. | |
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. | |
| Deadmeat 19: They’d get rarsed up the batti in a car [...] Then they’d be back on the hoe stroll. | |
| (con. 1975–6) Steel Toes 101: Ya got a ho stroll in this burg? | |
| Flint 2: Working Girls 150: She walked the track, trying to pick up her next john. She had only been on the ho stroll for a couple of hours, and she almost had six hundred dollars. |
(US black) a group of prostitutes that accompany their pimp on the street.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 hoe train Definition: a pimp’s ladies that follow behind him, or arm-in-arm, in a train-like form. Example: Being a truly badass pimp, i own the longest hoe train on the block. |