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tinker
[ ting-ker ]
noun
- a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.
- an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.
- a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.
- an act or instance of tinkering:
Let me have a tinker at that motor.
- Scot., Irish English.
- a Romani living in the British Isles; a Traveler.
- any itinerant worker.
verb (used without object)
- to busy oneself with a thing without useful results:
Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.
- to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.
- to do the work of a tinker.
verb (used with object)
- to mend as a tinker.
- to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.
tinker
/ ˈɪŋə /
noun
- (esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans
- a clumsy worker
- the act of tinkering
- another name for Gypsy
- informal.a mischievous child
- any of several small mackerels that occur off the North American coast of the Atlantic
verb
- intrfoll bywith to play, fiddle, or meddle (with machinery, etc), esp while undertaking repairs
- to mend (pots and pans) as a tinker
Derived Forms
- ˈپ, noun
Other Word Forms
- پ·· noun
- ܲ·پ· adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of tinker1
Word History and Origins
Origin of tinker1
Idioms and Phrases
In addition to the idiom beginning with tinker , also see not worth a damn (tinker's damn) .Example Sentences
I kept the bones of my grandmother’s — spaghetti, ground beef, a generous layer of mozzarella — but let myself tinker.
And lastly, if you constantly tinker with what you are cooking, you must refrain when you fry.
“I feel like he probably just tinkers with his beautiful vintage car collection. But who knows. Maybe he does goat yoga. He’s really a bloomin’ onion of man.
But the golfer believed the constant tinkering, the pursuit of perfection, to be entirely justified.
Whether Mitchell continues to tinker with his side is less predictable, as he continues to develop his winning-machine in the year that will define his side's success.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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