Hinky is an American word which means questionable, unreliable, suspect. Hinky, an adjective, refers to something which is not quite right, something causing concern. Related words are hinkier and hinkiest. The origin of hinky is obscure, some believe that hinky evolved from the Black English slang word hincty which was popular in the 1920s. Hincty describes someone who is snobbish, putting on airs. Others believe hinky comes from gangster lingo of the 1920s and 1930s to describe jumpy behavior. Also, an obsolete definition of the verb hink is to falter or limp, which may have morphed into meaning suspicious behavior.
Examples
There is something a little hinky with these figures and it’s something that many noted when the report first came out from the UN. (Forbes)
“I actually got a hinky feeling from somebody who walked by and he was making strange hand gestures and seemed to be very focused on the other side of the lake,” Salafia said. (The Baltimore Sun)
But something hinky happens when Jack, at 12,000 feet, hits Mach 1.2, 12 Gs and an atmospheric re-entry temperature of 1,200 degrees: A violet haze encircles him and sends him to a parallel world that’s close but not exactly the same. (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Indeed, it now appears that I am the only woman in Canadian media who didn’t know there was something hinky about him all along. (The National Post)
Mike and Jennifer Colbach. of Portland, were hiking in Forest Park last Thursday when they noticed two men who ‘were acting really hinky’. (The Daily Mail)
Batbelt item selection, a hinky multi-tier affair in the prior games that sometimes led to erroneous weapon selection in the helter-skelter of combat, is now a single tier circle, placing everything in immediate, pinpoint reach. (TIME)
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