Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to obtain money by criminal means, e.g. blackmail (apparently specific to Oscar Wilde and his circle).

1893		O. Wilde letter Mar. in Holland Complete Letters (2000) 560: I’d sooner be rented all day, than have you bitter, unjust and horrid – horrid –.
1898		O. Wilde letter 11 May in Holland Complete Letters 1066: Bosie [...] is devoted to dreadful little ruffian aged fourteen [...] every time he goes home with Bosie he tries to rent him.
1910		I.L. Pavia Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen No. 11 41: To rent = erpressen [GS].
1938		(con. 1890s) F. Harris Oscar Wilde (1965) 103: ‘Why does he give it [a letter] back to me?’ I [Wilde] asked carelessly. ‘He says you were kind to him and that it is no use trying to “rent” you; you only laugh at us.’.

2. to work as a homosexual prostitute, to take money in return for sexual favours.

1960		G. Westwood A Minority 155: There will always be young men who like to make easy money. [...] They may start renting because they’ve been introduced into it by young normal boys.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 230: The square [...] where Guardsmen are or used to be rented = picked up as hustlers.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 91/1: rent v. to prostitute oneself for the pleasure of gay men.