Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US police) suspicious.

1924		W.C. Handy ‘Basement Blues’ 🎵 Well, I am hinkty and I’m low-down.
1934		J.L. Kuethe ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 26: hinkty. Suspicious.
1936		San Quentin Bulletin in L.A. Times 6 May 7: HINCTY, suspicious.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 54: I had to [...] turn my back once and for all on that hincty, killjoy world.
1966		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 56: Brock got kind of hankty [suspicious] and he felt for his gun.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 169: You don’t have to go hincty on ugly ass Railhead.
1970		J. Wambaugh New Centurions 187: ‘[T]he boss is a little hinky about some of these tails you been pulling’.
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 348: I know those guys always get a little hinky about short-term money.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 107: Cops would stop and frisk anybody who looked ‘hinky.’.
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 490: Big guys with that hinky look indigenous to bagmen worldwide.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 16: My father [...] first suspected something was hinky with my mom when he found a book in a bag she packed for a trip.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 271: Something’s hinky. First. no-shows in the ballroom [...] now this.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] The classic case: nighttime, he looked hinky, the cop—a newbie named Hayes—told him to stop and he didn’t.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 59: [Number] Plate stats might reveal hinky names and addresses.

2. (US) scared, jumpy, nervous.

1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) Handsome queer boys [...] wetting their eyebrows with hincty fingertip.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 8: I was getting just a little bit hinkie by the time I saw Pete.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 107: hincty [...] paranoid, afraid of being arrested or beaten.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 93: ‘Driver of the pimpmobile looks hinky,’ Francis said.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 184: Of course. The hinky male stripper.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 132: Buster was starting to get a little hinky from having Daddy Joe around.
2008		Simon & Zorzi ‘Unconfirmed Reports’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 2 [TV script] He was a little hinky. Wouldn’t tell me much.
2017		T. Pluck ‘Deadbeat’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 33: I see the steward, tell him Ege’s acting hinky.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 99: Just Sam get hinky from being hit.

3. (US) very cheap, petty.

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 21: hinky – Very cheap and petty; tight pockets.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 320: He has on a hincty washed-out faded tourist sport shirt.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 289: ‘The Cabo’s working great, bro. You kicked its hinky ass’’.