wrinkle, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wrinkle n.

[? 14C–16C SE wrinkle, a tortuous, sinuous movement]

1. (also rinkle, winkle) an idea, device or trick, esp. a new one.

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 19: I should make an open discourse of every wrinkle they have to cover and work deceit.
1580		Lyly Euphues and his England (1916) 374: They are too expert in love, having learned in this time of their long peace every wrinkle that is to be seen or imagined.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 35: lady ans.: Have a Care, Miss; they say mocking is catching. miss.: I never heard that. nev.: Why then, Miss, you have one wrinkle — more than ever you had before.
1800		Sporting Mag. June XVI 148/2: Convinc’d that he had gain’d a wrinkle more.
1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 96: Well, well, thinks I to myself, I’ve got a new rinkle.
1837		True Colonist (Hobart, Tas.) 21 Apr. 585/3: ‘I’ll enlighten you a point or two, and give you another wrinkle’.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 314: That wrinkle is worth havin,’ I tell you; that’s a fact.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 23 Mar. 92/1: France gives us a wrinkle in this lesson.
1849		C. Kingsley Alton Locke (1850) 162: She says confounded clever things, too [...] and you may pick up a wrinkle or two from her.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 169: They’re beggars at setting lines, and ’ll put you up to a wrinkle or two for catching the five pounders.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: Nice-looking house! Yes; and Dhalbhat knows how to keep it cool, too, having gleaned some ‘wrinkles’ from the Colonel.
1866		Sportsman 30 Aug. 2/1: Notes on News [...] In their punishment of what they call escroquerie [i.e. confidence tricks] the French can ‘give’ us ‘a wrinkle’ .
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 165: They put him through such a course of novel tortures that a tribe of North American Indians might have picked up a wrinkle there.
1877		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (1st ser.) 213: They could put a recruit up to so many wrinkles, as they called them.
1883		J. Keane On Blue Water 49: I will just introduce one professional ‘wrinkle,’ When sailing ‘on a wind’ [...] in light weather, with a heavy swell on, it is almost impossible to tell when the sails are just touching or shaking in the wind, or when they are only flapping to the send of the ship.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 18/4: But – a lawyer is usually as full of buts as a brewry – before paying his next quarter, the publican was advised to come back, and the firm would probably put him up to a winkle or two worth knowing.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 203: We wanted to see for ourselves how the thing was done, and pick up a few wrinkles that might come in handy afterwards.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 277: I must put you up to a wrinkle, if you don’t know the dodge already.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 18 Nov. 6/7: Seeing the gloves, he said, ‘Well, if that ain’t a bad wrinkle of the boss’s. Blest if i don’t try it as well’.
1897		N.Z. Observer and Free Lance (Auckland) 27 Nov. 7/2: [He] is at present in the Lake country picking up wrinkles for the benefit of Canadian tourists.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Feb. 11/3: I’m up to each wrinkle that’s new.
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 225: Mrs. Mackenzie will put you next to the etiquette wrinkles where you are shy.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 14 Sept. 12/1: ‘Snarley, the pal as knows every wrinkle of my game, is the ’ands of that cursed ’tec’.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 16/4: This wrinkle, first adopted by the well-mounted Boers, proved so effective in S’Africa that both sides indulged in the practice whenever opportunity afforded.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 193: I don’t know if it’s the latest fad and wrinkle in science or not.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 15: A man could hardly live in the world for five-and-twenty years without picking up a few wrinkles. He smiled at his own joke.
1938		Duckett ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 22 Jan. 7/2: Les Amigas group of charming sub-chips [...] have dug a up a new wrinkle in entertainment angles.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 9 May [synd. col.] The chorines have another wrinkle. They’re wearing ‘Indian love bands’ [...] on the important finger which gives the wolves the ‘keep away’ sign.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 14: [I] had picked up a money-spinning wrinkle or two in this wrestling business.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 109: In the meantime better let me give you a few wrinkles in applied psychology.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 57: I have a hunch he’s got some wrinkle of his own going.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He knows all the wrinkles, he invented a lot of them himself.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 73: Seemed every new wrinkle the cops came up with, the crooks turned around.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Mag. 9 Apr. 19: Lately, I’ve noticed a new wrinkle on the American landscape.

2. a lie.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.

3. a useful piece of information.

1848		Era (London) 4 June 3/4: Those that went to Epsom on Sunday, expectin to get a wrinkle, were mistaken.
1871		C. Money Knocking About in N.Z. 29: He gave me my first lesson in bushcraft, such as a knowledge of edible herbs and roots, modes of crossing rivers, snaring birds, and many other invaluable ‘wrinkles.’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 22/1: The latest ‘wrinkle’ to the peaceful shepherds who dispense evangelical doctrine to the footsore and weary, has been given by the Rev. George Lee, of Lambeth.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 252: A fortnight after the robbery we got a ‘wrinkle’ where the safe was to be found.
1900		Sporting Times 6 Jan. 2/3: He and the architect went round all the big cities of Europe to see if there were any wrinkles to be picked up.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 280: There is a bloody big foxy thief beyond the garrison church at the corner of Chicken Lane – old Troy was just giving me a wrinkle about him.

4. (US) a bit, a small amount.

1850

W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: An’ what was wus, it was all ’bout nothin’, for he warn’t mad a wrinkle.

5. (US) a minor problem.

2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘It’s a wrinkle,’ Quinn decided. ‘That’s all.’ And, boom, he brightened right up again, just like that.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 266: ‘You may hit a certain wrinkle’.

6. see wrinkly n.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

wrinkle-bellied (adj.) [her stretch-marks]

having had a number of children, usu. used of a prostitute, i.e. wrinkle-bellied whore.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Wrinkle. A Wrinkle Bellyd Whore or B[itch]; one that has had a number of Bastards. Child-bearing leaves wrinkles in a woman’s Belly.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Wrinkle. A wrinkle-bellied whore; one who has had a number of bastards: child-bearing leaves wrinkles in a woman’s belly.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

wrinkle ranch (n.)

(US campus) a retiremement or old people’s home.

1997–2002

Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 wrinkle ranch n. Another name for a nursing home, retirement center, or residence that provides care for the elderly.

wrinkle room (n.)

(gay) a bar, a club or that area of a club where older gay men gather.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 228: Suzette = a shrivelled old queen (in the Wrinkle Room of a club).
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language 47: Wrinkle Room — bar frequented by middle-aged gays.

In phrases

have more than one wrinkle in one’s arse (v.) [‘Every fresh piece of knowledge being supposed by the vulgar naturalists to add a wrinkle to that part’ (Grose, 1786); note sense 1]

to have gained a fresh piece of knowledge.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: You have one Wrinkle more in your A—e, i.e. you have one piece of knowledge more, every fresh piece of knowledge being supposed by the vulgar Naturalists to add a wrinkle to that part.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.