tweak

American  

[tweek] / twik /

verb (used with object)

• tweaks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tweaked,
  past participle,  past
• tweaking
  present participle

1. to pinch and pull with a jerk and twist.

   She playfully tweaked his ear.

   I tweaked my bowtie again, but it stayed stubbornly crooked.

2. to pull or pinch the nose of, especially gently.

   He leaned over the stroller and tweaked the baby affectionately.

3. to make a minor adjustment to.

   Bad hardware can't be fixed by tweaking the software.

4. to annoy, tease, or make fun of.

   How much of her “dumb blonde” image was actually a brilliant performer tweaking the stuffed shirts?

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verb (used without object)

• tweaks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tweaked,
  past participle,  past
• tweaking
  present participle

1. Slang.

   1. to use methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs.

      He'll try to avoid taking a drug test if he's been tweaking and toking.

   2. to engage in wildly excited or agitated behavior under the influence of such drugs (usually followed byout ).

      If I'd seen someone else acting this way I would have thought they were tweaking on meth.

noun

• tweaks
  plural

1. an act or instance of tweaking; a sharp, twisting pull or jerk.

   "Thought it was you," she said, greeting him with a tweak on the nose.

2. a minor adjustment.

   Here are 12 simple tweaks to speed up your computer.

verb phrase

1. tweak out

   1. to extract by pinching and pulling with a jerk, as with tweezers.

      In a twinkling she had tweaked out a dozen hairs and put them in an evidence bag.

   2. to remove (defects or unwanted features) by means of a minor adjustment.

      You have a couple of bugs to tweak out from your website, but you’re on the right track.

   3. to effect (an improvement) by means of minor adjustments.

      They were able to tweak out some pretty hefty performance improvements to the sound system.

   4. to optimize in this way.

      My operating system isn’t tweaked out the way I like, but it's running, stable enough, and ready for use.

   5. Slang. to engage in wildly excited or agitated behavior under the influence of methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs.

      She grabbed a knife and waved it around while tweaking out on crystal meth.

      He showed up shirtless and barefoot, tweaked out on cocaine.

   6. Slang. to make or become wildly excited or agitated; freak (someone) out.

      I decided not to tell my kids what I’d done so they wouldn't tweak out about it.

tweak British  

/ twiːk /

verb

1. to twist, jerk, or pinch with a sharp or sudden movement

   to tweak someone's nose

2. slang motor racing to tune (a car or engine) for peak performance

3. informal to make a minor alteration

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noun

1. an instance of tweaking

2. informal a minor alteration

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tweaker
  noun
• tweaky
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tweaks
  plural

Participles

• tweaking
  present
• tweaked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tweak
  simple
• tweaks
  simple
• have tweaked
  perfect
• has tweaked
  perfect
• am tweaking
  progressive
• are tweaking
  progressive
• is tweaking
  progressive
• have been tweaking
  perfect progressive
• has been tweaking
  perfect progressive

Past

• tweaked
  simple
• had tweaked
  perfect
• was tweaking
  progressive
• were tweaking
  progressive
• had been tweaking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tweak
  simple
• will have tweaked
  perfect
• will be tweaking
  progressive
• will have been tweaking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tweak

First recorded in 1595–1605; akin to twitch

Explanation

When you tweak something, you pinch it or twist it. You may have a doting aunt who thinks you're still two years old and can't resist tweaking your nose every time she sees you. Tweak also means to adjust or fine-tune. When you finish writing a paper, it's a good idea to go back through one last time, to tweak it and make sure it's absolutely perfect. So when you tweak something or give something a tweak, you're making little adjustments, you’re not rewriting your paper or tossing it out and starting all over again.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tweak tweaks tweaked tweaking

"He just had to tweak his code to follow the uneven and changing thickness along the length of the scroll."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

The tactical tweak invited pressure, with Enzo Fernandez equalising before Lautaro Martinez scored a stoppage-time winner.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

The change likely isn’t a sign of any major shifts in the education Princeton and MIT provide students, and instead is the result of a tweak in the methodology U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

In a story published today, I wrote about how companies would tweak their financial reporting if the Securities and Exchange Commission gives them an option to report earnings on a semiannual basis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

I suspect it will result in a tweak in my cocktail.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

The department says minor mistakes or admin tweaks, such as correcting a name on a booking form, can cost passengers up to £40.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Such direct relationships, he stressed, are the core asset of modern journalism, even as tech platforms continually insert themselves between news outlets and their readers and viewers through algorithm tweaks.

From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026

From subtle camera tweaks on the iPhone 18 Pro to real-time fitness scores on the Apple Watch Series 12, see how the latest gear compares to what’s already in your pocket.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

But the look and tone of “60 Minutes” remained intact, with only a few minor tweaks to the graphics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Then he tweaks my nose like he might a naughty child, and dismisses us.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

From time to time the disguised funding scheme would be tweaked to "assist with continued concealment" and "reduce the likelihood of difficult questions being asked".

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

Hugging Face is a leading platform for accessing open-weight AI, meaning the underlying numerical parameters can be downloaded and tweaked by users.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Oracle lived up to high expectations on Thursday as the cloud and software giant tweaked its forecasts higher and sent an upbeat signal about future business.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

The company builds some Volkswagen-branded vehicles at a small factory in Tennessee, but has been criticized for selling tweaked versions of European products designed in Germany—seemingly never with enough cupholders for American families.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Cherry tweaked the picture, magnifying the plate rack: Vardy Dealership.

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin

Needing 68 from 75 balls, England were cruising towards a target of 322 until Buttler retired hurt on 67 after tweaking a hamstring.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Smaller improvements — like adjusting the amount of oil used to fry chicken and tweaking other fryer settings — would go a long way across its more than 46,000 restaurants worldwide, executives said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Tech writer Alex Heath, who uses A.I. in a back-and-forth process with his own tweaking, explained recently that Pangram judged his text to be 100 percent human.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

If the model detects anomalies in new raw materials, for instance, it will suggest small adjustments, like tweaking the amount of oil or water going into the recipe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Applications for private transportation needed little more than tweaking.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

Related Words

• tease
• twist