Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (US) odd, bizarre, eccentric.

1847		Richmond (VA) Enquirer 17 June n.p.: It is said [...] that all the members of the Randolph family have been more or less kinky.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 108: Kinky, eccentric; fanciful.
1893		‘’Arriet on Labour’ in Punch 26 Aug. 88/2: If Votes sets women by the ears, as they does men, my winky! / I guess ’twill make domestic life even more crabbed and kinky.
1902		Richmond Dispatch (VA) 12 Oct. 13/2: I got into one of those line-ups recently in a kinky little town in North Carolina.
1928		E.C.L. Adams ‘Old Mammy’ in Nigger to Nigger 117: A nigger tickles me wid he fool ideas [...] He head kinky inside an’ out.
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 168: All morals and no horse sense. You take a young flash like this here Davy and drop him into anything maybe a little bit kinky, and he’s just fifty cards in the deck.
1967		Times 1 June 8: After several gruesome murders and a lot of kinky goings-on the police finally come to the correct solution.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 152: How in hell could anyone abuse the three of you — a kinky little band of would-be extortionists.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 31: They seemed to be kinky about tobacco and anyone caught with even a dog-end would get a good beating.
1999		Guardian G2 16 July 4: Call me kinky, but I just couldn’t get that excited about the prospect of owning a rainbow selection of Magic Markers.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 17: I thought [Edward] Albee was a kinky fucker.

(b) immoral or unladylike.

1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 64: According to my classification, girls were either ‘square,’ or ‘kinky’.
1985		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 16 Aug. We went back to the room. Nothing kinky happened. I got wasted and then went to bed.

(c) (US) of livestock, frisky; of people, high-spirited.

1903		G.S. Wasson Cap’n Simeon’s Store 107: He ain’t over and above kinky, though, I s’pose likely?
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 123: Inside of three minutes Rajah [i.e. an elephant] was that kinky he tried to do a double-shuffle and nearly wrecked the barn.
1913		G.D. Chase ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 4: kinky, adj. In high spirits. ‘You seem to be feeling pretty kinky to-day.’.
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 75: kinky, adj. Lively, strong, energetic.

(d) cheeky.

2001

Guardian 31 Mar. 28: To us (the phrase) kinky bugger is the same as cheeky monkey.

(a) dishonest or criminal.

1903		Cincinnati Enquirer 9 May 13: Kinkey – Crooked [HDAS].
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 117: Kinky. – Criminal ; crooked ; unlawful. Said of stolen goods, or of an individual known to be without the law.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 293: A kinky kaydeucer will always cop the short.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 105: [They] wanted it damned well understood they were the only kinky members of the family.

(b) stolen.

1927		Collier’s 23 July 15/1: ‘Why, you can’t tell me that you didn’t know those five big cars were kinky.’ ‘Kinky?’ [...] ‘Those cars were bent.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 138: kinky goods Stolen goods; illicit goods.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 117/2: Kinky. (Scattered areas of East and near South) Stolen, especially stolen automobiles.

(a) sexually eccentric, esp. sadomasochistic.

1916		Illus. Bits (London) 30 Sept. 14/1: A Bit Kinky [...] He is not the only one in khaki who is a lover of corsets and high-heeled footwear. Before I entered the throng I often laced myself into 18-inch corsets.
1916		Illus. Bits (London) 2 Dec. 13/2: Another Kinky One [...] I [...] am very fond of reading the different letters on tight lacing, high-heeled shoes and silk stockings, and like your correspondent [...] who signed himself ‘A Bit Kinky’ [I] wish I had been born a girl instead of a boy, so i could wear the lovely clothing.
1942		‘David Ormsbee’ Sound of an American 71: She smelled of kinky lusts and savage dances and phallic wonders and primitive art.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: Fancy anyone being so kinkey about a brown teapot.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 16: Suze, in the course of her business [...] meets lots of kinky characters.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 74: Another A and A habitué was Kinky Mavis. She was not a great beauty, but a serious eroticist with a large assortment of chains, fancy-dress (nun, schoolgirl, police-woman, etc.) and a collection of photographs she liked to spread around her bed.
1971		S.J. Perelman letter 9 Aug. in Crowther Don’t Tread on Me (1987) 268: The whole thing was kinky beyond belief – walls lined with closeups of every intricacy of the Sport of Kings and Queens.
1982		P. Bailey Eng. Madam 88: She specialized in ‘kinky bondage fellows’ – barristers, Members of Parliament, stockbrokers.
1988		P. Califia Macho Sluts 34: I wanted something a little more exotic, a little more intense – kinky, to be exact.
1999		Observer 22 Aug. 23: We only wanted to hear about the kinky sex they’d been having.
2004		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 3 4: ‘Sit him up and you can screw me while he watches [...].’ It was all getting a bit kinky for me.
2006		D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 312: Hell’s bells, what a story: drugs, violence, kinky fun.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Hair’s Fate’ in Knockemstiff 46: [ H]e told Cowboy Roy the whole sad story of Lucy and the butcher knife. Sounds kinda kinky to me,’ the trucker said.
2012		Independent 24 Jan. 37/2: I did her as a dominatrix in this kinky dress. She was ironing while listening to Iron Maiden.
2012		Topix Local News (Johannesburg) 21 Nov. 🌐 Good looking Aussie guy 33 looking for kinky Ausssie girls. If you would enjoy some training and stretching your f*ck holes get me at [etc.].
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 127: [H]e gave each of them a juicy kiss that made me think this crew was a little kinkier than at first appeared to be the case.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 176: Peter loves to party, loves kinky sex.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 224: ‘I charge extra for anything kinky’.

(b) also in fig. use, i.e. almost perversely interested in; thus kinkily adv.

1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 63: Also, he made me kinky about books.
1964		in Hamblett & Deverson Generation X 146: [The Tonups] have always been an untouchable group on their own, kinkily keen on their bikes.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] Maybe he was kinky for kids.

(c) sexy, provocative.

1961

T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 26: There were all sorts of perfume and powder boxes on the shelves, and it smelt [...] like a French brothel [...] all those kinky bottles and boxes.