Stay at home by practice (7)
I believe the answer is:
inhabit
'stay at' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'home by practice' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'practice' becomes 'habit' (habit is a kind of practice).
'in'+'habit'='INHABIT'
(Other definitions for inhabit that I've seen before include "Occupy - settle" , "Occupy (dwelling)" , "people" , "Live in (a place)" , "Live in, occupy" .)