Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an admirable person, a dependable person.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 July 2/1: [L]ove’s young dream [...] was Interrupted by the death of Jennie Cramer, who was not the ‘thoroughbred’ that Blanche is.
1902		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden and Mr Paul 57: Duchess is a torrowbred, for fair, but I never taut she had de noive to toin de trick she done.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein’ in Four Million (1915) 127: Chunk, if you get the girl get her on the square — don’t try any hocus-pocus with a thoroughbred like her.
a.1954		‘Mexicana Rose’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 39: I thought you were a thoroughbred, my ace man, / But I find you’re a comical stud.
1964		‘Return of Honky-Tonk Bud’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 69: And your lady friend, she sure came in, / Like all thoroughbreds will do.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 48: Why don’t you pull her? She’s a thoroughbred and she’s free.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 251: She carried herself like a thoroughbred.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 45: That little girl is a thoroughbred.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] All of them were young, no more than 19, and all of them were thoroughbreds.

2. (drugs) a dealer who sells pure or high quality narcotics.

2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Thoroughbred — Drug dealer who sells pure narcotics.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 59: Trini was a ‘thoroughbred,’ a dealer who sells only laboratory-pure narcotics.

3. (US black) a male sexual athlete.

a.1962

‘The Letter’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 141: Then we did it in your best bed. / Why didn’t you tell me he was a thoroughbred?

4. (US black) a sophisticated hustler.

1968		N. Heard Howard Street 37: These so-called slickers and thoroughbreds don’t mean him no good.
1973		M. Agar Ripping and Running 164: Thoroughbred – A hip person.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 thoroughbred n 1. a male. Origin: hip hop. (‘All the thoroughbreds and chicken heads will be at the party.’).

5. a prostitute with style, sophistication and knowledge, generally considered among the élite of her profession [note Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748–9): ‘Phoebe herself, that hackney’d, thorough-bred Phoebe, to whom all modes and devices of pleasure were known’].

[1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 9: A stable of gash [...] almost as good as thoroughbreds [...] you’know – horses].
1973		D. Goines Street Players 33: A thoroughbred always stands out, honey.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 39: She was a throughbred, my woman! She stacked up long scratch in the kip for me.