tinker with

1. Try to repair, work aimlessly or unskillfully with, as in He tinkered with the engine all day but it still wouldn't start. This idiom, first recorded in 1658, alludes to working as a tinker, that is, mending metal utensils.

Example Sentences

Whether it was confidence in the starting rotation, masterful management of the bullpen, being unafraid to tinker with the lineup or making brilliant defensive replacements, every lever Roberts pulled in Games 6 and 7 ultimately resulted in another championship.

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Nobody was going to tinker with the Turbo S’s silhouette, were they?

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On the experimental and half-spoken interlude “Tomboy Gold,” she says that when she was a little girl her father would let her hold the timing gun while he worked under the car’s hood, and includes enough detail about the process that you feel ready to tinker with your own vehicle.

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Italians often get angry when foreigners tinker with their food recipes - pizza with pineapple, cappuccino after midday or carbonara with cream, for example.

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These provisions don’t just tinker with tax law.

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