Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US black) genuinely, honestly, sincerely, to be taken at face value.

1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 56: ‘You ask me could I scrap?’ ‘Can you, Bunny? For real I mean.’.
1951		L. Brown Iron City 196: By God it’s Mr. Winkel for real!
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 94: Then she kissed him for real.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 73: Jimmy continued pressing home his point. ‘Yeah, that’s where it’s at for real.’.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 74: You can take that for real, honey.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 37: Pierce is going down for real?
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 95: ‘We wanted our own gang for real, you know’.
2003		G. Tate Midnight Lightning 85: Like we had a table full of pure cocaine. It was like Superfly for real.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 3: I’ma knock u so hard u’ll b shittin out yo mouth 4 real.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] ‘[H]e went right around the twist and ended up in the rat house for real’.
2012		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011 5: FRILLA — for real: X: ‘Your dad is crazy.’ Y: ‘Frilla. He is.’.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 6: FOR REALS — honestly: ‘She’s one of my favorite people, for reals’.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘Fo real, niggah’.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] You either stop caring for reals—but no one could do that, could they?—or you go on living at a distance from everyone.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 10: But forreal it makes sense not to look greazy when you’re the driver since you don’t wanna [...] look like you can’t afford the whip.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 71: ‘I ain’t never even had a dad for reals’.