tamper

[tam-per]

verb (used without object)

to meddle, especially for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing (usually followed by with): Someone has been tampering with the lock.

to make changes in something, especially in order to falsify (usually followed by with): to tamper with official records.

to engage secretly or improperly in something.

to engage in underhand or corrupt dealings, especially in order to influence improperly (usually followed by with): Any lawyer who tries to tamper with a jury should be disbarred.

Origin of tamper

1560–70; probably variant of temper (v.)

Related formstam·per·er, nounun·tam·pered, adjective

Synonyms for tamper

1. interfere.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tampering

tinker, meddle, fool, intrude, cut, doctor, vary, irrigate, interpose, plant, damage, water, interlope, change, spike, cook, destroy, diversify, manipulate, busybody

Examples from the Web for tampering

Contemporary Examples of tampering

Because of this, tampering with the nature of one has an impact on the nature of the other.
Living Black & Gay in the ’50s
Alain Mabanckou
December 3, 2014
Why is he re-introducing the idea of tampering with Medicare in an election year?
Paul Ryan: Still a Total Jerk
Michael Tomasky
April 3, 2014
Her fellow firefighters strung a giant bra across the firehouse ceiling and endangered her life by tampering with her oxygen tank.
Women Who Paved the Way
Betsy West
February 26, 2013
But the argument here is that any tampering with entitlements is a betrayal.
Your Turn: What's Acceptable?
Michael Tomasky
November 14, 2012
In 2000, Mitchell was accused of disenfranchising thousands of Floridians by tampering with voting lists.
GOP-Backed Voter Fraud Laws Aim To Disenfranchise Students
Jake Heller
September 4, 2012

Historical Examples of tampering

But to give it to him would be like tampering with his position of complete dependence.
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad
The planetary rulers had taken no chances of tampering with their propaganda.
The Martian Cabal
Roman Frederick Starzl
That of being spies and tampering with the aeroplane last night!
Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal
G. Harvey Ralphson
Was it not tampering with rectitude to have overcome them by a too persuasive rhetoric?
The Nebuly Coat
John Meade Falkner
Is that where the strange man was tampering with the lock the day of the auction?
Tom Swift and his Motor-boat
Victor Appleton

British Dictionary definitions for tampering

tamper

verb (intr)

(usually foll by with) to interfere or meddle

to use corrupt practices such as bribery or blackmail

(usually foll by with) to attempt to influence or corrupt, esp by briberyto tamper with the jury

Derived Formstamperer, noun

Word Origin for tamper

C16: alteration of temper (verb)

tamper

noun

a person or thing that tamps, esp an instrument for packing down tobacco in a pipe

a casing around the core of a nuclear weapon to increase its efficiency by reflecting neutrons and delaying the expansion

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

Word Origin and History for tampering

tamper

1560s, figurative use of tamper "to work in clay, etc., so as to mix it thoroughly," probably originally a variant of temper (v.), which is how it was initially spelled. Perhaps it is a dialectal workmen's pronunciation. Related: Tampered; tampering.