tinker
Americannoun
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tinkers
plural
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a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.
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an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.
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a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.
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an act or instance of tinkering.
Let me have a tinker at that motor.
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Scot., Irish English.
verb (used without object)
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tinkers,
present (3rd person singular)
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tinkered,
past participle, past
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tinkering
present participle
-
to busy oneself with a thing without useful results.
Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.
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to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.
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to do the work of a tinker.
verb (used with object)
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tinkers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tinkered,
past participle, past
-
tinkering
present participle
-
to mend as a tinker.
-
to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.
noun
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(esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans
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a clumsy worker
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the act of tinkering
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another name for Gypsy
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informal a mischievous child
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any of several small mackerels that occur off the North American coast of the Atlantic
verb
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to play, fiddle, or meddle (with machinery, etc), esp while undertaking repairs
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to mend (pots and pans) as a tinker
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tinkersimple
-
tinkerssimple
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have tinkeredperfect
-
has tinkeredperfect
-
am tinkeringprogressive
-
are tinkeringprogressive
-
is tinkeringprogressive
-
have been tinkeringperfect progressive
-
has been tinkeringperfect progressive
Past
-
tinkeredsimple
-
had tinkeredperfect
-
was tinkeringprogressive
-
were tinkeringprogressive
-
had been tinkeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tinker
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English tinkere (noun), syncopated variant of tinekere “worker in tin”
Explanation
When you tinker, you work casually or attempt to fix something, the way you might tinker with your brother's old bike or tinker with the website you're building for fun. As a verb, tinker means to fix (or mess around with) just about anything. For example, your creative writing teacher might ask you to tinker with your most recent short story and add more specific, vivid details. As a noun, tinker refers to a person whose job involves traveling around and fixing things. It's an old-fashioned word, dating from the 13th century, when traveling tinsmith wasn't an uncommon occupation.
Vocabulary lists containing tinker
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The Boy Who Invented TV
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Peter Pan
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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.
See Examples For:
The Fantasy Premier League season begins on Friday 21 August so, to help managers as you tinker with your teams before the deadline, we've gone through all 20 teams and analysed some of their assets.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
I devised a game: Every day I set foot in the garage, I needed to get rid of one thing on the shelves before I could enter the workshop to tinker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
For a long time, I’d watched Paul tinker with the recipe for his perfect relationship.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
“I’m able to just go out and play baseball as opposed to trying to tinker and fix certain stuff.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
The tinker held out a pin in his other hand.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
It tinkers with toe boxes, sponsors ranchers for bull-riding events and uses fabric that is more flexible to accommodate preferences for more functional fits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
Tesla frequently tinkers with the trim level names, driving ranges, power and features for its vehicles.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2024
The only way I see them slipping up here is if he tinkers with his team too much.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
Everybody else tinkers around our artistry,’ but actions speak louder than words and there was nothing there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
Sailors and soldiers and tinkers had been observed dancing in the streets with nobles and fat merchants, and in every inn and winesink cups were being raised to the new triarchs.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
He’s tinkered with different grips for his changeup, a pitch he started deploying more in mid-May.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Others may have tinkered with edge lines before Dorr, but he used his influence to make them part of everyday life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
I hit some other bumps in the road as I tinkered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Amorim tinkered his system once more to try and turn the tide, but his substitution of Casemiro left the Brazilian befuddled.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
Later, he tinkered with wires, switches, and radios in his spare time.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Post-doctoral researcher Dr Hugh O'Connor began tinkering with the design of flow batteries when he needed one for his PhD - and realised it would cost £2,000-£3,000.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Far from being a flawless machine, the body reads more like a patchwork of compromises shaped by millions of years of evolutionary tinkering.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Instead, she’s tinkering with the idea that Chicago might be her second city, a place where her artistic talents can fully blossom in a smaller market.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
While we spend a great deal of time in the U.S. talking about fixing what’s wrong with healthcare, we often end up just tinkering around the edges rather than fundamentally changing things.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
Shady was tinkering at his workbench as I ate my breakfast.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
