tinker
Americannoun
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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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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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to mend as a tinker.
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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
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am tinkeringprogressive
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are tinkeringprogressive
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is tinkeringprogressive
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have been tinkeringperfect progressive
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has been tinkeringperfect progressive
Past
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tinkeredsimple
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had tinkeredperfect
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was tinkeringprogressive
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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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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:
For a long time, I’d watched Paul tinker with the recipe for his perfect relationship.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
She also got to treat patients, including one with "fidgety legs", give out pretend prescriptions, take phone calls and tinker with various bits of medical equipment.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
The oil giant paid the smaller company $320 million over a decade to tinker with the genetic makeup of algae to try to distill enough oil to make the venture technically viable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
Facing an overmatched opponent that allowed him to freely tinker with his lineups, Mick Cronin tried plenty of mixing and matching Tuesday afternoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025
And tinker means I must be pretty near the Ledge, where the big fish come to feed.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
It tinkers with toe boxes, sponsors ranchers for bull-riding events and uses fabric that is more flexible to accommodate preferences for more functional fits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
The only way I see them slipping up here is if he tinkers with his team too much.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
Everybody else tinkers around our artistry,’ but actions speak louder than words and there was nothing there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
Even discretionary spending, the money Congress tinkers with every year, is soaring.
From Washington Times ● May 12, 2023
She tinkers with the guts of the car, getting her hands covered with oil.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
I hit some other bumps in the road as I tinkered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
"Yesterday, two helicopters landed right here. They tinkered with something, then left again," Mathiassen recalled.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 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
Olivia Watts said she was "in tears" as she watched her grandparents Ron and Marilyn Hill take each other for a spin on Tuesday - before Ron tinkered on the famous Wurlitzer organ.
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2025
Over in the bow, Leo whistled happily as he tinkered with Festus’s mechanical brain, muttering something about a crystal and an astrolabe.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Far from being a flawless machine, the body reads more like a patchwork of compromises shaped by millions of years of evolutionary tinkering.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
While we spend a great deal of time in the U.S. talking about fixing what’s wrong with healthcare, we often end up just tinkering around the edges rather than fundamentally changing things.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
Fannie and Freddie are the backbone of the U.S. mortgage-finance system, which makes any tinkering with their structure especially risky.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
Rodri was a phenomenon at the heart of City's midfield against Inter - alongside John Stones, Pep couldn't resist some tinkering - and scored a fine winning goal in Istanbul.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
I thanked my stars for all the tinkering Ma did for the widow.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
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.
