tinker

[ ting-ker ]
See synonyms for: tinkertinkeredtinkeringtinkerer on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.

  2. an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.

  1. a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.

  2. an act or instance of tinkering: Let me have a tinker at that motor.

  3. Scot., Irish English.

verb (used without object)
  1. to busy oneself with a thing without useful results: Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.

  2. to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.

  1. to do the work of a tinker.

verb (used with object)
  1. to mend as a tinker.

  2. to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.

Origin of tinker

1
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English tinkere (noun), syncopated variant of tinekere “worker in tin”

Other words from tinker

  • tin·ker·er, noun
  • un·tin·kered, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tinker in a sentence

  • In the dawnlight he saw Welborn and Landy tinkering with the old model that had brought them so valiantly through the mountains.

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • Bernice saw that Warren's eyes had left a ukulele he had been tinkering with and were fixed on her questioningly.

    Flappers and Philosophers | F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • I wish to Heaven you would get him to leave off tinkering those commercial treaties that he is always making such a fuss about.

    Endymion | Benjamin Disraeli
  • But all this tinkering has left very sorry scars, and even the tower outside has not been spared.

    The Story of Perugia | Margaret Symonds
  • A house is never really finished until one loses interest in it and stops tinkering and planning homely improvements.

British Dictionary definitions for tinker

tinker

/ (ˈtɪŋkə) /


noun
  1. (esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans

  2. a clumsy worker

  1. the act of tinkering

  2. Scot and Irish another name for Gypsy

  3. British informal a mischievous child

  4. any of several small mackerels that occur off the North American coast of the Atlantic

verb
  1. (intr foll by with) to play, fiddle, or meddle (with machinery, etc), esp while undertaking repairs

  2. to mend (pots and pans) as a tinker

Origin of tinker

1
C13 tinkere, perhaps from tink tinkle, of imitative origin

Derived forms of tinker

  • tinkerer, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with tinker

tinker

In addition to the idiom beginning with tinker

  • tinker with

also see:

  • not worth a damn (tinker's damn)

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.