Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also straighten) to teach someone manners, to make them socially acceptable within a context.

1873		J.H. Beadle Undeveloped West 34: A third was positive the Lake Region would straighten me out.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 6 Oct. 4: In working wires and fixing things / I thought that I was great, / I used to know just what to do, / To straighten out a candidate.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 53: Knocking around with Rapp [...] put the finishing touches on me and straightened me out.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 39: I thought they’d talk to ’im. Try to straighten ’im out.
1958		Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley (performer) in Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 496: Listen old man. I done straightened you.
1967		J. Breslin World of Jimmy Breslin (1968) 32: He is up there [i.e. prison] to get straightened out, not to become a confidence man.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 157: Ah’m gonna take that rifle and shove it clean up your ass [...] Ah’m gonna straighten you out, bub.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 107: Back in my day we didn’t need no intervention to straighten no young black boys out.

2. (also straighten one’s head out, straighten up) to soothe someone’s emotions; to cheer someone up.

1908		C. Fowler letter12 Dec. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 348: I've not written home yet. Am waiting till I get straightened out and my gray matter clears a little .
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: Having the quadruped in his ‘bag’ he laid it at a fancy price [but] when it had its nose in front in the straight, the odds-yeller nearly fainted [...] it took a dozen doses of brandy to straighten up the knight of the satchel.
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 224: I thought the trip and the night air and the quiet might help me to get straightened out.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 127: This line o’ jive will straighten out everybody who hasn’t been straightened.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 195: She had a way of straightening me out that no one else ever had.
1960		Mad mag. Sept. 45: We cut over to his pad in the wild hope of straightening this poor sick cat out.
1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 8: I went up there in retreat [...] and just straightened my head out.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 76: I get nervous around these freaks with all their whips and stuff. I’ve been thinking about working for these other guys who’re into mugging and stickups, just to get my head straightened out.

3. (US) to give an explanation; to sort a situation or person out.

1925		D. Hammett ‘The Gutting of Couffignal’ Story Omnibus (1966) 28: ‘Let me straighten this out for you,’ I interrupted.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 47: Noonan is workin’ for us, not Sloan’s. Please, Tommy, straighten him out.
1945		Lindsay & Crouse State of the Union Act II: Let me straighten you out about Grant and me.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 208: Even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have had the strength to straighten her out. Besides, if she thought Pencey was a very good school, let her think it.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 18 Sept. in Proud Highway (1997) 540: I’ve just sent a postcard to Cooke, trying to straighten him out on what I at least meant to say.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 26: There’s been a mixup with the tables, we’ll straighten it out.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 112: Didn’t you straighten out that shit about 20/20?
1997		G.V. Higgins Change of Gravity [ebook] ‘[Y]our rabbi has to make that phone call, here, to get it straightened out’ .
1998		I. Welsh Filth 40: I had better straighten the laddie out once and for all.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 7: This was something we could do, try to get things straightened out.

4. (also straighten oneself out, straighten one’s act out) to act in an acceptable manner, to remedy one’s mistakes.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 69: I left him several times, and would come back only when he promised to straighten out and become a man.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 17: He’ll straighten out.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 157: I thought he was going to straighten out.
1967		‘Iceberg Slim’ Trick Baby (1996) [blurb] [He] moved down to Los Angeles where he straightened out and began a career as a writer.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 18: My father tearfully vowed to straighten himself out.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 121: I may have been straightening out, but they knew my reputation for strong-arm tactics.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 47: ‘He straighten his act out?’ ‘Hell, no. But he stopped playing the horses.’.
2004		R. Cooley When Corruption Was King 103: [in context of paying long-standing debts] Ricky [...] was always coming up lame. I told him I wouldn’t take any action until we straightened out.

5. to ‘teach someone a lesson’, to punish.

1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 42: Ah means tuh straighten you out dis day.
1944		E. Wilson 20 May [synd. col.] ‘Lana [Turner] [...] you bin steppin out with my husband. Girl, you do that again and Ah’ll straighten you out’.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 167: Frank gave you the assignment of straightening out that gambling casino.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 222: I’m gon’ straighten out that nigga for fair!
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 11: M’man Polito — went up to 113th Street to straighten a kid out.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 115: Jimmy sent Stanley Diamond and Tommy DeSimone [...] to straighten him out.
2011		Myers & Workman Kick 16: ‘Judge Kelly said you needed some straightening out’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 69: We needed to unify and really straighten these guys out. These guys was disrespectfully cutting Black people.

6. (US Und.) to introduce (into the underworld); spec. to become a ‘made’ member of the US Mafia.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 213/1: Straighten out. 1. To provide one with an introduction to the proper underworld people, especially one who is a stranger in the community or who has recently been released from prison; to rehabilitate in criminal circles.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 325: Straighten out, To introduce.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 172: ‘You want in, eh? [...] to be straightened out. Become one of us, a wisea’guy’.

7. to suborn, to corrupt.

1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 3: He did not mind paying the law —or even straightening a snout out now and again.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: I commandeers the race-racks – and I straightens out the law.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 37: Collier [...] sought to safeguard himself by his relationship with Terry Sneed, figuring that if he fell foul, Sneed would straighten out whoever nicked him.

8. see straighten v.²