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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fix n.²

(orig. US Und.)

1. (also fix-it, fix-up) any corrupt deal, a bribe, a favour.

1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 18 Sept. 2/5: The whole thing [i.e a grossly unbalanced boxing-match] looks remarkably like a fix-up.
1904		Wash. Post (DC) 14 Aug. 4/2: The operator of ringer No. 1 didn’t know anything about the scheme. The charterer of ringer No. 2 knew only about he frame-up of the man who was going to run ringer No. 1. But the fellow with ringer No. 3 knew all about the fix-it of both the others.
1908		Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 6 Sept. 4/8: It wasn’t a schlenter or ‘fix-up’.
1911		J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 28: I’ll bloody him a bloody fix, / I’ll bloody burn his bloody ricks.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 33: fix [...] A condition of security where grafters may operate with impunity.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 164: You show us the mazuma and we’ll show you the fix.
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 120: Almore finished her off and then he and Condy between them bought a fix.
1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 102: He knows all the dirt, where the big fixes are.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 171: The juice / The fix / The schmeer / The In.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 229: The whole thing is a fix, but who’s fixing for whom?
2000		Indep. on Sun. 20 Feb. 1: It’s a fix.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] The idea of a fix didn’t sit well with me. Even if I came out on the winning side.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 231: ‘[T]here’s some kind of fix in’.

2. the person who makes such deals.

1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 11: Professional thieves have no thought of receiving punishment while in the hands of the fix.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Cemetery Bait’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 515: The stout fellow being the local fix [...] looks after the local law.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 186: I know he’s the fix. I know he’s big.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 188: The boys are already operating with a strong fix in the Paxton Square district—I think they got to Captain Megher.

In phrases

put the fix in/on (v.) (also have the fix in)

to ensure a plan or event favours whoever has paid the bribe, arranged the deal etc.

1932		Arizona Dly Star (Tuscon, AZ) 23 July 8/3: ‘I’m putting in the fix now down east’.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 4: Forestalling action by the law. (Putting in the fix.).
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 7: The super puts in the fix for all right-thinking hustlers.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] It’s all I can do, putting in the fix to keep [...] those porn-campaign bastards off my tail.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 146: He’d put in so many fixes himself he’d see one now like spots before his eyes.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 28: I had the fix in.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 119: It ought to be a new experience for him [...] going into court. He generally puts the fix in outside.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 86: He tried to put the fix on me. For ten large—.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 250: The fix was in. The L.A.P.D. had some inkling of what was up and had stonewalled it.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 237: No, you recognize that the fix is in.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 11: I told Mortimer that if he wanted a fee to put the fix in to tell me now.