Hinky vs Fishy - What's the difference?
hinky | fishy |
(informal) Acting suspiciously; strange, unusual; acting in a manner as if having something to hide, or seemingly crooked.
* 1970 7 February 1970: Sgt. MacDonald (William Boyett), Re: Adam-12, Log 54 Impersonation (Season 2, Episode 16) referring to Detective Forest (John Hudson)
* 1990 Oct 3: Kurt Guntheroth, Re: Market selling under highest bid? , misc.invest, [http://groups.google.com/group/misc.invest/msg/6ac18d5821db8b29?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 1993 Jeb Stuart & David Touhy, The Fugitive , imdb.com, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106977/quotes]
* 1995 Sep 26: Richard Steven Walz, Re: Odd etching chemistry; was: Re: Does dry ice fog hurt electronics? , sci.electronics, [http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics/msg/1358d334ea0df994?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 2000 , p. 101
* 2004 Bruce Schneier qt. Diana Dean, Boston Globe (2004)
* 2006 Dec 06: Hester Mofet, Re: Tip in '95 Disappearance of TV Anchor Jodi Huisentruit Doesn't Yield Much , alt.true-crime, [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/c4efc53f756875d1?dmode=source&hl=en]
(informal) Suspicious (of something).
* 1993 Aug 20: Dave Ratcliffe, Re: Long Trips With Cats , rec.pets.cats, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.pets.cats/msg/6fc681256883eae9?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 1995 Jun 23: Rosco Benson, Re: HP Browning Mag safety, remove it? , rec.guns, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.guns/msg/71ec3940d89d2594?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 1999 Mar 14: Trn0, Re: HELP w/ taking a knife to another country (TANZANIA) , rec.knives, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.knives/msg/4fb8ccf2764ce154?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 2005 Feb 11: tiny dancer, Re: Pregnant Ky. Woman Kills Attacker , alt.true-crime, [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/msg/33d57888c4b937a7?dmode=source&hl=en]
(informal, derogatory) Weird; nonstandard.
* 1968 Sept 21: Officer Pete Malloy, as written by Jack Webb, intuiting that a citizen’s report of burglars casing the neighborhood is probably legitimate, Adam-12, Season 1, Episode 1 at 9:32 , [http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/hulu/vi4018208793/]
* 1995 Feb 1: Gharlane of Eddore, Re: E2 is great SF , rec.arts.sf.tv, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.tv/msg/b4020dab6031f759?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 1997 Mar 11: Karen J. Cravens, Re: WRITERS! , rec.games.frp.misc, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.frp.misc/msg/9b6a552d5cba5e20?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 2006 Jan 4: Andrew H. Wakefield, Got the lathe -- followup , rec.crafts.metalworking, [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.crafts.metalworking/msg/b783cb5b9c33166e?dmode=source&hl=en]
* 2008 Sept 8: Dave Letterman discussing the climate crisis, The Late Show with Dave Letterman, Show #2980 , rec.arts.tv, [http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/wahoo/index/php/20080908.phtml]
(childish)
Of, from, or similar to fish.
Suspicious; inspiring doubt.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3
, passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy , and came very near to saying so.}}
As adjectives the difference between hinky and fishy
is that hinky is acting suspiciously; strange, unusual; acting in a manner as if having something to hide, or seemingly crooked while fishy is of, from, or similar to fish.As a noun fishy is
diminutive of lang=en.hinky
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- I thought he might be acting hinky.
- There's nothing hinky about this.
- This is hinky , this guy's a college graduate...
- And I don't know if that copper reaction you teased me with for H2CO3 would run that direction, would it? Looks hinky .
- Given the hinky events of the past twenty-four hours, he had come to suspect that his own unhappy spouse had conspired in the defacing of his prize taxidermy, the trashing of the red BMW, and even the infesting of his luxury sport-utility vehicle with shit-eating insects.
- A US customs agent, Diana Dean, questioned him at the border. He was fidgeting, sweaty, and jittery. He avoided eye contact. In Dean's own words, he was acting "hinky ." Ressam's car was eventually searched, and he was arrested.
- There's something hinky about this whole thing.
- I think they get hinky if everything is shaking around and they can't see much.
- Lots of folks are hinky about removing ANY "safety" feature from a firearm.
- If the customs inspector gets hinky about letting them into the country, you can let him keep one as a gift.
- I was feeling a bit hinky about this one too.
- This [call] shouldn’t be hinky – I’ve got a hunch they’re still floating around.
- So either they've got a *really* hinky space drive, or they're just just plain fat-assed lard-brained idiots with delusions of competence.
- Heck, I'd *much* rather the 68xxx architecture had caught on than Intel, with its hinky memory-handling.
- The motor is rather hinky .
- I’ve been persuaded that something is hinky', and by God, you can quote me on that. Something is ' hinky .