23 April 2015

tinker

[ting-ker]

noun
1. a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.
2. an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.
3. a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.
4. an act or instance of tinkering:
Let me have a tinker at that motor.
5. Scot., Irish English.
a gypsy.
any itinerant worker.
a wanderer.
a beggar.
6. chub mackerel.
verb (used without object)
7. to busy oneself with a thing without useful results:
Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.
8. to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.
9. to do the work of a tinker.
verb (used with object)
10. to mend as a tinker.
11. to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.

Origin of tinker
Middle English
1225-1275; Middle English tinkere (noun), syncopated variant of tinekere worker in tin

Related forms
tinkerer, noun
untinkered, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for tinker
– For them, the news that scientists could soon genetically tinker more easily and more extensively is anything but good.
– But the details have been fuzzy because it’s difficult to tinker with the mixture of hydrocarbons that decorate the flies.
– If one must tinker with hormone-replacement therapy, one may-briefly, in moderation.

Anagram

trek in

Today’s aphorism

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

– William Shakespeare

On this day

23 April 1564 – birth of William Shakespeare, the Bard. English poet and playwright.

23 April 1616 – death of William Shakespeare, the Bard. English poet and playwright. Shakespeare invented more than 1700 words which are now in common use. He changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives and joining words that normally wouldn’t be joined.

23 April 1928 – birth of Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer and former U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. Died 10 February 2014.