tweaking

[ twee-king ]

noun

1. the act of pinching and pulling something with a jerk and twist:

   A slight tweaking of his lips and a furrowing of his brow expressed his disapproval.

2. the act of making minor adjustments to something:

   A mere tweaking of some bit of technology is not going to fix this massive problem.

3. the act of annoying, teasing, or making fun of someone:

   The movie seems like it might be an affectionate tweaking of the nerd generation.

4. Slang. the act of using methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs, or of behaving wildly or erratically under their influence (usually followed by out ):

   Why do people take stuff they’re "not sure of" and then complain about tweaking out—or worse, ending up in the hospital?

5. Slang. the act of behaving or causing someone to behave in a wildly excited or agitated manner (usually followed by out ); freaking out:

   What with his tweaking out over every little mistake, the boss hasn’t been anyone's hero of late.

adjective

1. making minor adjustments to something:

   I’m so happy with the sound—a huge antidote for me coming from the ever tweaking, never satisfied audiophile world.

2. Slang. behaving in a wildly excited or agitated manner, especially as an effect of using methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs:

   He was pacing around and bursting in and out of emotional fits like a tweaking junkie.

3. Slang. (used as an intensifier):

   What kind of a tweaking idiot would do that?

adverb

1. Slang. (used as an intensifier):

   These fudge brownies are tweaking amazing.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tweaking¹

First recorded in 1610–20; tweak + -ing ¹ for the noun senses; tweak + -ing ² for the adjective and adverb senses

Example Sentences

They use AI to make intelligent tweaks specific to your image, based on its content and the results of Google’s research.

From Popular-Science

The deeper you go down the coverage rabbit hole, the more you’ll notice that many of the adjustments and tweaks are spokes off different coverage hubs.

From Washington Post

Once those ads were approved and in Facebook’s system, money continued to pump into campaigns, and the ads were put through a constant set of tweaks and changes redirecting them toward a few battleground states.

From MIT Technology Review

While some performance flannels incorporate technical features galore, ranging from stretchy look-alike fabrics to hidden zipper pockets, Pearl Izumi’s Rove is a simpler rendition with just the necessary bike-friendly tweaks.

From Outside Online

There are a few graphical upgrades and a few new gameplay tweaks, but if you played 2018’s Spider-Man, you pretty much know what to expect.

From Ars Technica

Some states are now tweaking the standards and dumping the “Common Core” label.

From The Daily Beast

Tweaking the Clintons may help win over Republicans for a presidential bid.

From The Daily Beast

What were some big Cameron suggestions that led to you tweaking your films?

From The Daily Beast

For them, tweaking the game, making play as exciting as possible, is a quest in itself.

From The Daily Beast

Studios are also tweaking their films to make them more Chinese-friendly.

From The Daily Beast

At present all that ever reached her was a slight disarrangement, a minute tweaking of one of her quilts.

From Project Gutenberg

Eight years later he came again, and, after tweaking her nose, ate a little haggis.

From Project Gutenberg

At last she lit on the side of a thistle, and tweaking out a fibre flew with it to the nest.

From Project Gutenberg

For Samuel had hold of his ear, and was tweaking it sharply.

From Project Gutenberg

She found him working the ride, Hilda back in the maintenance bay, tweaking some of the robots.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• tease
• twist