Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) any plan that should benefit its maker, an exploitable gimmick, an ulterior motive; thus get an angle on v., to work out the optimum way of doing something.

1913–14		Van Loan ‘Out of His Class’ in Taking the Count 200: She’s Carsey’s cousin, that’s who she is [...] Now do you begin to git the angle?
1917		Van Loan ‘By a Hair’ in Old Man Curry 71: Engle hates to give anybody else credit for being wise to the angles around this track.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 68: I was clocking that start those high-steppers just tried out. I think I got their angle from my slant.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 551: That’s a new angle.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Little Miss Marker’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 300: Many citizens naturally figure there must be an angle.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 89: ‘A Square’ is the poor chap who works for a living, who does not know any of the ‘angles’.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 7: The world was a house of angles. You had to grab one in your teeth, hang on, ride it out.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 54: Doesn’t care for the angle, Hoplite, or doesn’t care for you personally.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 74: They started shooting the angles.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 165: Don’t try to figure the angles yourself. You might end up hurting someone.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 31: You got to think of a different angle, something nobody else thought of for a while.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 85: No angle [...] Just a nice little business.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 61: What’s your fuckin’ angle Nicky? You doing business or what?
2000		Guardian Guide 29 Jan.–4 Feb. 13: Whether it means having it away with Julie Christie or vanquishing the spectre of Nazism, hairdressers have to have an angle.
2005		E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 185: ‘You glommed Cohen dirt to shake down wifey, that’s your angle’.
2012		G. Flynn Gone Girl 140: Nick is always looking for angles.
2015		R. Reynolds The Dark Inside 15: I couldn’t see an angle to make this [story] play in New York.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 164: He’s got to be playing a money angle somwehere.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1956

‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 39: You have the sincere fellows, some jerks, and a few angle lads – wanting to get in on the ground floor.