Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sexually eager, aroused.

1826		in Bleser Secret and Sacred; The Diaries of James Henry Hammond (1988) 5: Most of his correspondence to Hammond concerns his preoccupation with the opposite sex [...] he confessed to feeling ‘horny’ but feared getting the ‘Clap’ [...] ‘I feel wild as a brick’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 16 Apr. n.p.: The following ladies honored the ground with their presence: Horny Anny, Swelled Head Jenny, Black Till, Betsy Hicks, Lizy Nash, Nancy Tucker, Big-headed Mary and old Scupper-mouth Virginia.
1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 27 Aug. n.p.: Look out, or your head may be as horn-y as your lady’s other affair .
c.1864		‘Good Old Times’ in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 107: Then to make her horney—hot, / How I’ll tickle round her twat.
1864		in T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) 33: Don’t let that horseradish make you horney for I am not there you know.
1868		Marysville Enterprise (KS) 2 May 2/3: What’s the diff between Orton’ s Female Cornet band and a cow? One is bully for horns, and the other is horny for bulls.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
c.1900		A. Cairene Sixfold Sensuality 36: They were both exhausted, even the horny Countess.
1923		R. McAlmon Companion Volume 50: God, I feel horny tonight.
1929		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 121: [song title] The Horny Crew.
1930		(con. 1915) ‘W.W. Windstaff’ ‘A Flier’s War’ in Longstreet Canvas Falcons (1970) 268: Once every two weeks, horny as mink, we hired a car for a trip to Toronto.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 333: horny—sexually repressed (in the male).
1934		C. Himes ‘To What Red Hell’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 289: Out of all those fine young kids up there, I had to get a horny son of a bitch like you.
1943		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 224: A horny young soldier named Frank / Had only his girl-friend to thank.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 82: She feels hornier than she ever felt.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 67: I was feeling pretty horny. I have to admit it.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 84: He’s a right horny one and he’s had his minces on that Richard a long time.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 256: It got him horny, but not the way it did when he saw a white broads tits with big rosy nipples.
1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 102: He, of course, was always horny. (Blue balls.).
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 26: We’ll save it for later, when they’re all horny.
1974		D. Mamet Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1994) 84: You make me very horny.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 19: Ready for the pasture, but still horny.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 24: Sometimes not even feeling horny.
1988		P. Califia Macho Sluts 31: I could make myself laugh, but I couldn’t make myself any less horny.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Ain’t No Fun’ 🎵 Next time I’m feelin kinda horny | You can come on over.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 6: Horny as a bull in springtime.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 4: Raki seduces more than any alcohol [...] it leaves you disembodied and alarmingly horny.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 88: The heat made you hornier than a motherfucker.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Norton was that worked up watching her get her rocks off he was almost as horny as he was before.
1999		Guardian Guide 2–8 Oct. 98: [His] mid-life crisis [...] causes him to shrug off responsibility and act like a stoned, horny adolescent.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Lives 30 May 5: To a soundtrack of ‘Horny, horny, horny’ (what else?).
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 58: Never felt so fuckin orny as when a come off-a smack.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘For some reason I’m horny as buggery’.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 25: Sonny tells me he’s got rich, generous, horny friends.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 107: A good cop never gets wet, hungry, or horny.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I had a fan? Who wasn’t a horny, middle-aged man?
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 7: [A] million zillion years from morphing into a horny stripper.
2016		‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in hazlitt.net 12 Feb. 🌐 We know horny. We’ve used it to describe the state of our own bodies and those of others. ‘You make me so horny,’ we might have told someone, and when we said it, we meant it as a compliment. ‘I’m so horny,’ we might have complained, and when we said it, our auditors knew exactly what we were feeling, for they have felt horny too.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 115: A heartbroken, horny chimp.

2. sexually arousing, erotic, pornographic, e.g. a horny picture.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 104: Horny.–Amative; lewd. With an obvious and vulgar origin.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 121: She caught us with a horny book.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 53: Just come to the horny part and get outta here!
1969		A. Buzo Rooted III iv: How did a poonce like Bentley ever crack on to a horny bird like Sandy?
1972		(con. 1950s) Jacobs & Casey Grease I ii: You don’t want to heat all the horny details.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 142: But these horny pictures – are you doing something with them?
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 67: A horny little nurse standing by the cot with a fantastic pair of top bollocks nearly bursting out of her uniform.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 53: She looked so horny I nearly lost it on the spot.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 314: It’s like smoking pure fuckin MDMA, man! Horny grass! Pure fuckin porn!
2000		Guardian Rev. 4 Feb. 12: Betty Blue’s opening sequence was horny.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 121: Pickin at her knickers like that. Never in a lifetime. Even though its a very horny thing to do.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 21: Now he was no longer employed [...] they couldn’t pass horny notes to each other.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 28: Horny women press [...] bribe cash on my guys.