tinder

Noun

tinder (countable and uncountable, plural tinders)

1. Small dry sticks and finely-divided fibrous matter etc., used to help light a fire.
   • Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Verb (1)

tinder (third-person singular simple present tinders, present participle tindering, simple past and past participle tindered)

1. (transitive) To set fire to; torch.
   • Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together?1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Tinder

UK/tɪndəː/US/tɪndɚ/

Tinder (plural Tinders)

1. A surname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Tinder

UK/tɪndəː/US/tɪndɚ/

Tinder

1. An online dating and geosocial networking application, launched in 2012, in which users "swipe right" to like or "swipe left" to dislike other users' profiles.
   • So sure, she’s a romantic, but quite a pragmatic one. “I was just thinking, ‘You know what? I’ve had shit luck with boys. I’ll try Tinder, Bumble and Love Island.’”2022 October 15, Zoe Williams, “Love Island winner Ekin-Su on sex, spin-offs and surgery: ‘I’ve not had anything major done. OK, apart from the boobs’”, in The Guardian
   • Famously, Tinder gamified the search for love, introducing that addictive swipe feature to its target audience: millennials.2025 May 10, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, “‘The Interview’: Can Whitney Wolfe Herd Make Us Love Dating Apps Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 May 2025

Verb (2) capitalized: Tinder

UK/tɪndəː/US/tɪndɚ/

Tinder (third-person singular simple present Tinders, present participle Tindering, simple past and past participle Tindered)

1. (intransitive, social media) To use the dating application Tinder.
   • I haven't been Tindering or doing the Plenty of Fish thing in quite some time because I've been seeing Date #2, and he's lovely. […] I'm not Tindering or frequenting POF because my heart still belongs to him, but up pops a message on the Friday night.2016 March 7, Khaley Fenn, edited by Alexandria Santamaria, Swipe Right, FriesenPress, →ISBN
   • With Tinder, the pretext is to hook-up, but the real pleasure is derived from the Tindering process. […] Summing up the Tindering experience, Tinderers would rather judge 50 pictures in two minutes than spend 50 minutes assessing one potential partner in a traditional face-on-face dating...2017 September 29, Tim Delaney, Tim Madigan, “4. Electronic Friendships”, in Friendship and Happiness And the Connection Between the Two, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, →ISBN, page 147