tinker
Americannoun
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tinkers
plural
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a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.
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an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.
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a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.
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an act or instance of tinkering.
Let me have a tinker at that motor.
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Scot., Irish English.
verb (used without object)
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tinkers,
present (3rd person singular)
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tinkered,
past participle, past
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tinkering
present participle
-
to busy oneself with a thing without useful results.
Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.
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to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.
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to do the work of a tinker.
verb (used with object)
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tinkers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tinkered,
past participle, past
-
tinkering
present participle
-
to mend as a tinker.
-
to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.
noun
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(esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans
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a clumsy worker
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the act of tinkering
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another name for Gypsy
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informal a mischievous child
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any of several small mackerels that occur off the North American coast of the Atlantic
verb
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to play, fiddle, or meddle (with machinery, etc), esp while undertaking repairs
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to mend (pots and pans) as a tinker
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tinkersimple
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tinkerssimple
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have tinkeredperfect
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has tinkeredperfect
-
am tinkeringprogressive
-
are tinkeringprogressive
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is tinkeringprogressive
-
have been tinkeringperfect progressive
-
has been tinkeringperfect progressive
Past
-
tinkeredsimple
-
had tinkeredperfect
-
was tinkeringprogressive
-
were tinkeringprogressive
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had been tinkeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tinker
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English tinkere (noun), syncopated variant of tinekere “worker in tin”
Explanation
When you tinker, you work casually or attempt to fix something, the way you might tinker with your brother's old bike or tinker with the website you're building for fun. As a verb, tinker means to fix (or mess around with) just about anything. For example, your creative writing teacher might ask you to tinker with your most recent short story and add more specific, vivid details. As a noun, tinker refers to a person whose job involves traveling around and fixing things. It's an old-fashioned word, dating from the 13th century, when traveling tinsmith wasn't an uncommon occupation.
Vocabulary lists containing tinker
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The Boy Who Invented TV
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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.
See Examples For:
The Fantasy Premier League season begins on Friday 21 August so, to help managers as you tinker with your teams before the deadline, we've gone through all 20 teams and analysed some of their assets.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Burris Duncan will use AI for easy fixes, but she isn’t ready to change her brakes or tinker with her engine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
For a long time, I’d watched Paul tinker with the recipe for his perfect relationship.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
“I’m able to just go out and play baseball as opposed to trying to tinker and fix certain stuff.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
Right under the signpost was a tinker with a pair of donkeys, one of them loaded so high with bags and bundles that it looked ready to tip over, the other conspicuously unburdened.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
As curious gas-station patrons wander in to see what’s behind the secret door, he tinkers with smoke and professional-grade whippers and runs cocktail mixtures through a centrifuge to smooth the texture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
The only way I see them slipping up here is if he tinkers with his team too much.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
Even discretionary spending, the money Congress tinkers with every year, is soaring.
From Washington Times ● May 12, 2023
As he tinkers, he discovers that time and space are breaking down in his immediate vicinity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
Nor did Oppenheimer share the hauteur that other theoretical physicists displayed toward Lawrence and his crew of preoccupied tinkers.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
If Ms. Wilson has tinkered with Homer’s value system, as some allege, she has also kept closer than others to the original length and meter of the poem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
I hit some other bumps in the road as I tinkered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Pep's trademark possession football that goes backwards and sideways is definitely being tinkered with, with City and other leading teams now looking to play forward earlier - something I definitely approve of!
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
The Badgers made seven of 11 three-pointers on the way to building a 20-point lead midway through the first half as Cronin continually tinkered with his lineup, trying to find a winning combination.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2026
Clever citrine eyes danced back and forth as Mama tinkered with the lock, and when the beast flicked his forked black tongue between the bars, a smell like smoke tinged the dry air.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
But hey—they were going to keep tinkering with things.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026
England, as expected, resisted tinkering with their attack and the hosts had the Pakistan innings wrapped up in 33.5 overs.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
And over time, from their tinkering comes their version of right and good.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Although the unnecessary tinkering didn’t damage her truck, other chatbot advice could have.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
It seemed a good location, and it got Harry back to doing what he loved most, tinkering with cars.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
