tamper with
Idioms-
Interfere or meddle, especially in a harmful way. For example, If you tamper with that lock it's sure to break . [c. 1600]
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Engage in improper or secret dealings, as in He was accused of tampering with the jury . [c. 1600]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When agents go rogue, they can tamper with or delete valuable files.
Nancy Guthrie’s mysterious disappearance sparked a frantic multiweek search by law enforcement focused on video footage that showed a masked person wearing gloves and a backpack appearing to tamper with a camera at her front door in Tucson, Ariz., the morning she disappeared.
“If I have instincts I feel are right, I don’t want anyone to tamper with them,” he told After Dark magazine in 1973.
From Los Angeles Times
Recorded at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1, they show an individual, wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack, appearing to tamper with the camera at Guthrie’s front porch the morning of her disappearance.
From Los Angeles Times
Law enforcement on Tuesday released photos and video of a masked individual appearing to tamper with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door on the morning of her disappearance.
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.
