- present participle of tweak.
tweaking
Americannoun
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the act of pinching and pulling something with a jerk and twist.
A slight tweaking of his lips and a furrowing of his brow expressed his disapproval.
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the act of making minor adjustments to something.
A mere tweaking of some bit of technology is not going to fix this massive problem.
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the act of annoying, teasing, or making fun of someone.
The movie seems like it might be an affectionate tweaking of the nerd generation.
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Slang. the act of using methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs, or of behaving wildly or erratically under their influence (usually followed byout ).
Why do people take stuff they’re "not sure of" and then complain about tweaking out—or worse, ending up in the hospital?
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Slang. the act of behaving or causing someone to behave in a wildly excited or agitated manner (usually followed byout ); freaking out.
What with his tweaking out over every little mistake, the boss hasn’t been anyone's hero of late.
adjective
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making minor adjustments to something.
I’m so happy with the sound—a huge antidote for me coming from the ever tweaking, never satisfied audiophile world.
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Slang. behaving in a wildly excited or agitated manner, especially as an effect of using methamphetamine, cocaine, or other stimulant drugs.
He was pacing around and bursting in and out of emotional fits like a tweaking junkie.
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Slang. (used as an intensifier).
What kind of a tweaking idiot would do that?
adverb
Etymology
Origin of tweaking
First recorded in 1610–20; tweak + -ing 1 for the noun senses; tweak + -ing 2 for the adjective and adverb senses
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.
UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health subsidiary Aetna are among those exiting markets or tweaking their coverage offerings as they try to protect profit margins instead of pushing for growth in new subscribers, analysts said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Centalion is tweaking its model to buy assets that fit into a few defined themes, the first of which is Gulf Coast natural gas, said Richyal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
In the meantime, there’s a lot of unwieldy comic commotion involving a missing corpse, a tweaking, naked Dwight and enough insipid TV sibling bickering to clog the airwaves for a decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● 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
“Steph and I are still tweaking our recipe too.”
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
