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?

---

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

---

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

Businesses can tweak it to operate it entirely on their own devices and create AI assistants that manage schedules, draft messages and organize files.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

That data now feeds into an AI model that can pre-emptively suggest how to tweak the machines to account for those variances, ensuring every chip is consistent, and flawless.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

The next step in the evolution, he said, is granting AI autonomy to tweak machine settings and operations based on its own recommendations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

I weighed what Nolan chose to protect, tweak and abandon in his own version and concluded that he wanted to make an action-tragedy about societal decline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

He needed only to tweak a radical to finalize the formula.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

“It was so high-pitched, it sounded like you were driving a Honda,” Boniol said, adding that Ram has since made tweaks to improve the Hurricane’s tone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Bubic said the Dodgers have already presented him with a couple mechanical tweaks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

The theory suggests teams often enjoy a short-term improvement after appointing a new head coach, helped by renewed motivation, tactical tweaks and a psychological reset.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Coupled with what Sasaki described as some mechanical tweaks to his lower half made over the All-Star break, it has left the Dodgers wondering if they’ve found an answer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

She tweaks my cheek and goes on her way.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

But this was a part of the game Guardiola tweaked often last season, struggling to land on something he was completely happy with.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Japan's parliament tweaked the imperial succession law on Friday but maintained the bar on women emperors -- despite surveys suggesting wide public support for the idea.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

The company said it is still studying how safeguards it built into the model can be tweaked because it is open weights—a safety concern raised in part by some proprietary model developers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

“The more I understood today’s dating apps, the more clear it became that they have been for the better part of two decades now, designed, tweaked, redesigned, rebuilt, to not work,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026

With their recommendation, most of the redecorated locker room stays as we designed it, tweaked only to comply with the fire code and the janitor's needs.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins

Already, McDaniel has done some tinkering and fine-tuning, tweaking Herbert’s footwork out of the shotgun formation to allow him to get the ball out of his hands a fraction of a second earlier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Here, Madonna is liberated from Universal’s script notes or editing maneuvers, free from tweaking anyone’s performance to feel more like the real thing.

From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026

It also plans to propose policy changes such as tweaking unemployment benefits to let displaced workers continue to get them while they, for instance, start new businesses with AI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

Yet interest rate levels are a blunt instrument when it comes to tweaking certain parts of the economy, Jamner said in a phone interview.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026

They were a lively, durable luxury, to be “love-loved!” as Helen would say, tweaking their feet.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

Related Words

• tease
• twist