Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (drugs) to suffer from narcotics addiction or the withdrawal symptoms that accompany it; thus jonesing n.

1975		cited in Spears Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986).
1987		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 4: jones – give up a bad habit: Jerry is jonesing. He hasn’t had a cigarette all week.
1987		NWA ‘Dopeman’ 🎵 On your hands and knees, searching for a piece of rock. / Jonesing for a hit,.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 116: Between the twitching, the jonesing, and the nodding, he can hardly get a tongue in edgewise.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 188: He’d gotten pretty blitzed, what with the Percodan he’d added to his usual breakfast of codeine and coffee. Whenever he started jonesing, he tended to get emotional.
2004		K. Jasper ‘Thursday’ in Brooklyn Noir 270: Food won’t make their jonesing any easier.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 45: I’d be jonesing, I’d be dying — my dealer only got it together to mail shit once every few days.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 208: He’s jonesing and getting more and more desperate.

2. in fig. use, to be obsessed by, to be dependent on.

1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 15: She was jonesin’ on that carnal metaphor for her soul: the Life.
1999		J. Poller Reach 20: Doubtless penned by a roguish ghost writer jonesing on whiskey and whizz.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 jonesin’ Definition: to have a want or need for something. Example: He be jonesin’ fo sum ghetto booty since his ass been in da pen.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 222: If he’s jonesing badly enough, a junkie will go anywhere to buy and shoot up a bag of smack.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 87: Nine years old, stick scissors in a socket to see what it felt like. Jonesing for that jolt from then on.

3. to want very much.

1984		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
1997		T. Fontana ‘To Your Health’ Oz ser. 1 ep. 6 [TV script] I’ve been fiending for that freedom, I’ve been jonesing for that jump over the wall.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 16: Jonesing: Needing, desiring, wanting.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 371: I’ve been jonesing for a good steak.
2006		M. Karp Rabbit Factory (2007) 125: I was jonesing for a connection with Joanie.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 143: Donnie stopped for cigarettes on the way [...] He’d really been jonesing for one.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 66: ‘I know you’re jonesing for Pietro’.

4. (US campus) to intrude and try to prevent someone who is attempting to seduce another.

1988

Eble Campus Sl. Oct.

5. (US campus) to do wrong, to cause someone to be unhappy.

1990		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 5: jones – do wrong. ‘Sheila, your boyfriend is jonesing you, girl.’ Feel disappointed, unhappy.
2014		T. Richardson ‘The Proxy’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] ‘The old coot thinks he sacrificed himself for his jonesin' grandson’.