tweak
adjust, fine-tune
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"When I'm struck with inspiration, the song comes so quickly that I just have to let it out. I'll TWEAK it here and there, maybe, but generally it arrives fully formed."
- singer/songwriter Allison Pierce
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Government TWEAKS airport screening rules for kids
(CBS News)
- singer/songwriter Allison Pierce
---
Government TWEAKS airport screening rules for kids
(CBS News)
Did you
know?
tweak
verb
- to adjust; fine-tune
- to pinch, pluck or twist sharply
(American Heritage Dictionary)
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Tweak likely stemmed from the Old English "twiccian" (to pluck), a word of obscure origin that referred to "pinching, plucking or twisting" something, usually a body part like the nose or ear. In former times, school masters didn't hesitate to tweak a student's ear if they were not behaving, a practice that is frowned upon these days.
Tweaking can also be done is a more playful manner. Do this at your own risk however and be careful what body part you tweak. To be on the safe side, tweak something like a flower bud or a radio dial; this won't get you in any trouble.
In the mid 1960s, tweak took on the figurative sense of adjusting or fine tuning something, such as a text. We tweak each OWAD entry several times before it gets published. Call us language tweakers if you like. Books, magazine articles and news reports also undergo extensive tweaking in order to check the grammar, content and overall readability. And of course most of us are accustomed to tweaking office documents, whether it's an e-mail, a report or a presentation.
Many car and motorcycle enthusiasts are passionate tweakers as well. For these people, there is no better way to spend an afternoon than "fiddling around" with an engine to make it run faster, louder or look better.
The most common application of the verb "tweak" is meanwhile in computer technology, which PC magazine defines as "to make minor adjustments in an electronic system or in a software program in order to improve performance."
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SYNONYMS
adjust, adapt, adjust, calibrate, change, convert, correct, customize, doctor, fine-tune, improve, modify, mutate, recast, redo, refashion, reform, remodel, reorganize, repair, reshape, revise, rework, shift gears, switch over, transfigure, transform, transmogrify, transmute, tune-up
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Can you tweak that text to make it sound a bit more personal? Thanks."
verb
- to adjust; fine-tune
- to pinch, pluck or twist sharply
(American Heritage Dictionary)
---
Tweak likely stemmed from the Old English "twiccian" (to pluck), a word of obscure origin that referred to "pinching, plucking or twisting" something, usually a body part like the nose or ear. In former times, school masters didn't hesitate to tweak a student's ear if they were not behaving, a practice that is frowned upon these days.
Tweaking can also be done is a more playful manner. Do this at your own risk however and be careful what body part you tweak. To be on the safe side, tweak something like a flower bud or a radio dial; this won't get you in any trouble.
In the mid 1960s, tweak took on the figurative sense of adjusting or fine tuning something, such as a text. We tweak each OWAD entry several times before it gets published. Call us language tweakers if you like. Books, magazine articles and news reports also undergo extensive tweaking in order to check the grammar, content and overall readability. And of course most of us are accustomed to tweaking office documents, whether it's an e-mail, a report or a presentation.
Many car and motorcycle enthusiasts are passionate tweakers as well. For these people, there is no better way to spend an afternoon than "fiddling around" with an engine to make it run faster, louder or look better.
The most common application of the verb "tweak" is meanwhile in computer technology, which PC magazine defines as "to make minor adjustments in an electronic system or in a software program in order to improve performance."
---
SYNONYMS
adjust, adapt, adjust, calibrate, change, convert, correct, customize, doctor, fine-tune, improve, modify, mutate, recast, redo, refashion, reform, remodel, reorganize, repair, reshape, revise, rework, shift gears, switch over, transfigure, transform, transmogrify, transmute, tune-up
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Can you tweak that text to make it sound a bit more personal? Thanks."
