tinker
pronunciation
How to pronounce tinker in British English:
UK [ˈtɪŋkə(r)]
How to pronounce tinker in American English:
US [ˈtɪŋkɚ]
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- Noun:
- a person who enjoys fixing and experimenting with machines and their parts
- an itinerant Gypsy
- a traveling repairman who mends broken things (such as metal household utensils)
- small mackerel found nearly worldwide
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- Verb:
- do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly
- work as a tinker or tinkerer
- try to fix or mend
Word Origin
- tinker
- tinker: [13] Etymologically, a tinker is probably a ‘worker in tin’. It could well be descended from an unrecorded Old English *tinecere, a plausible derivative of tin. There is an alternative possibility, however: it may have been derived from the now obsolete verb tink ‘tinkle’ (which, like tinkle [14] itself, was of imitative origin), in allusion to the metallic sounds made by tinkers repairing pots (northern and Scottish dialects had the word tinkler for ‘tinker’).
- tinker (n.)
- "mender of kettles, pots, pans, etc.," late 14c. (mid-13c. as a surname), of uncertain origin. Some connect the word with the sound made by light hammering on metal. Tinker's damn "something slight and worthless" is from 1824, probably preserving tinkers' reputation for free and casual use of profanity; the plain and simple etymology is not good enough for some writers, and since 1877 an ingeniously elaborate but baseless derivation has been circulated claiming the second word is really dam.
- tinker (v.)
- 1590s, "to work as a tinker," from tinker (n.). Meaning "work imperfectly, keep busy in a useless way," is first found 1650s. Related: Tinkered; tinkering.
Example
- 1. Perhaps mr willetts should tinker some more with the ivory towers .
- 2. So I will not mutilate my body or tinker with its workings just so it looks good on the outside .
- 3. They tinker a bit more .
- 4. Tinker with its culture , the game 's executives say , and the sport would be irretrievably weakened .
- 5. In a sprawling research complex north of chicago , kraft 's researchers test new foods and tinker with old recipes .