Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To pinch, pluck, or twist sharply.
- v. To adjust; fine-tune.
- v. To make fun of; tease.
- n. A sharp, twisting pinch.
- n. A teasing remark or action; a joke.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To twitch; pinch and pull with or as with a sharp jerk; twinge.
- n. A sharp pinch or jerk; a twitch.
- n. A pinch; dilemma; perplexity: as, to be in a sad tweak. E. Phillips, 1706. Also tweag, tweague.
- n. A prostitute.
- n. A whoremonger.
Wiktionary
- n. A sharp pinch or jerk; a twist or twitch.
- n. Trouble; distress; tweag.
- n. A slight adjustment or modification.
- n. obsolete, slang A prostitute.
- v. transitive To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.
- v. transitive, informal To adjust slightly; to fine-tune.
- v. transitive To twit or tease.
- v. intransitive, US, slang To abuse methamphetamines, especially crystal meth.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.
- n. A sharp pinch or jerk; a twist or twitch.
- n. obsolete Trouble; distress; tweag.
- n. obsolete A prostitute.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a squeeze with the fingers
- v. pinch or squeeze sharply
- v. pull or pull out sharply
- v. adjust finely
Etymologies
- From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian ("to pluck"), cognate with twitch. (Wiktionary)
- Probably variant of dialectal twick, from Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Mr. Stringer said raising the tax rate to 4.332% from 3.876% for the wealthiest New Yorkers, a move he described as a "tweak," would allow for a "huge, meaningful" tax cut to 95% of the city.”
“Creating camera-phone-friendly QR codes with a goo. gl shortlink URL tweak is nice, but one of our readers took the next logical step.”
Create Instant QR Codes With A Bookmarklet | Lifehacker Australia
“Applying the tweak is simple enough — just download, extract and double-click on the registry hack file to apply the changes to the registry.”
Add Open File Location To The XP Context Menu | Lifehacker Australia
“All you need for this minor tweak is an aluminium strip, a drill, and a screw that will fit into the plate on the bottom of your camera.”
Build A DSLR Attachment For Taking Pictures Left-Handed | Lifehacker Australia
“WASHINGTON — Republicans say they'll repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law, but tinker and tweak is as far as they're likely to get.”
The Huffington Post: Health Care Repeal: No Clear Path For GOP
“Today's whole-grain tweak: Using whole-wheat pastry flour and almond meal for baked goodies.”
“Today's whole-grain tweak: Brown rice in idlis and dosas.”
“He described it as a ` ` slight groin tweak '' and said he would be re-evaluated Tuesday.”
“Her tweak is that caps should be lifted so that all income is subject to SS taxation.”
“Seems that the premise of I Am Legend is getting quite a tweak from the original story.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tweak’.
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
vanish, number one, archangel, commodious, dominie, rubble, glisten, morose, spindle, ventilation, Blessed, christian and 503 more...
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webdev
random webdev lingo used primarily in computer programming.
( open list, randomness, technical jargon, geek speak )
more:
ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 439 more... -
Costa Vida
The Costal Life
surf, carve, tubular, rip curl, curl, froth, floater, tweak, wafting, off the wall, pocket, rad and 39 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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Malachi_Constant's Words
triumverate, pandemic, parsnip, delineate, zamboni, parka, laser, swoop, malevolent, benevolent, fracas, tipsy and 372 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, T
torquate, thalassocracy, toothsome, travois, tempestuous, tone, tincture, tripwire, tether, trill, tenacious, travesty and 355 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2022 more...
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arby's words
me default
shirty, kerfuffle, tenterhooks, susurrus, palimpsest, crimson, rufous, cicatrix, crepuscular, carapace, quaff, exanimate and 239 more...
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Next!
salvific, redemptive, salvic, roil, changeling, barrow, burro, sow, swath, haymow, shock, sheaves and 190 more...
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Words That Populate My Mind
This is a collection of words I love, old ones that I love the sound of when I repeat them for years and new ones coined in news articles on up and coming trends and technologies - most of them I k...
aroma, mojo, blithely, fringe, fray, synchronicity, doublespeak, buzzword, thoughtcrime, portmanteau, newspeak, oldspeak and 963 more...
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random
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words I can use that won't confuse
great words that will be understood by most people sound great and add flavour to my conversations
flummox, rigamarole, colloquialisms, smarmy, tweak, synchronicity, scrutinize, ruthless, mortified
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Aeonn's Words
discombobulation, dank, crass, abolishment, quite, ubiquitous, crank, catapult, sponge, click, queer, irish and 124 more...
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jgs's Words
liminal, luminescence, trajectory, simulacrum, thundersnow, trappings, rigour, temporality, mammalian, diffuse, tearing, flail and 83 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tweak.

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