From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtinkertin‧ker1 /ˈtɪŋkə $ -ər/ verb [intransitive] REPAIRto make small changes to something in order to repair it or make it work bettertinker with Congress has been tinkering with the legislation.tinker around with something Dad was always tinkering around with engines.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
tinker• In the studio, there was time to reflect, to tinker.• The lad tinkered happily with a multi-pronged screwdriver that couldn't possibly work in real life.• To spice up some of their machines, parlor owners have been tinkering illegally with the odds.• Mr Reaves himself likens his operation to tinkering on a Model A Ford with screwdrivers and a pair of pliers.• History is littered with examples of people tinkering, tampering and then tumbling.• To redesign those three districts, the judges tinkered with the borders of 10 neighboring districts in August.• More complex designs presumably require tinkering with Visual Basic scripts.tinkertinker2 noun [countable] 1 BOin the past, a tinker was someone who travelled from place to place selling things or repairing metal pots, pans etc2 British English old-fashionedSSC a disobedient or annoying young childExamples from the Corpus
tinker• We can not do without his cunning, or his tinker friends.• Even the tinkers camped nearby were packing up their few belongings and preparing to leave.• He suddenly remembered her carefully veiled amusement when he had mentioned the tinkers.• The tinker plainly knew what she was about, because there was not one single piece of junk to be seen.Origin tinker2 (1200-1300) Perhaps from tink ( → TINKLE2); from the sounds made by someone mending a metal pot 