Word.ws English Dictionary

tinkering

Syllables: tin·ker·ing/ˈtɪŋkɚɪŋ/

tinkering is the present participle and gerund of tinker.

Meaning of tinker

Verb

tinker (third-person singular simple present tinkers, present participle tinkering, simple past and past participle tinkered)

  1. (intransitive) To work as a tinker.
  2. (ambitransitive) To fiddle with something in an attempt to fix, mend or improve it, especially in an experimental or unskilled manner.
    • the broken bureau-lock and tinkered window-pane1894, Thomas Hardy, A Few Crusted Characters
    Synonyms:
    fudge, fiddle, hack

See all 11 meanings of tinker

Noun

tinkering (plural tinkerings)

  1. An experimental fix or change.
    • But political tinkering is never far away and British Rail, during much of its life, was subjected to it.2026 August 19, Richard Wilcock, “Structure and power in the times of GBR”, in RAIL, number 1068, page 21

Forms of tinkering

pluraltinkerings

Words that rhyme with tinkering

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tinkering

What does tinkering mean?
Tinkering means an experimental fix or change.
What is tinkering the present participle and gerund of?
Tinkering is the present participle and gerund of tinker.
What part of speech is tinkering?
Tinkering is a noun.
How do you pronounce tinkering?
Tinkering is pronounced /ˈtɪŋkɚɪŋ/.
What is the plural of tinkering?
The plural of tinkering is tinkerings.

Words near tinkering in the dictionary

  1. tinkerbirds
  2. tinkerdom
  3. tinkered
  4. tinkerer
  5. tinkerers
  6. tinkering
  7. tinkerings
  8. tinkerlike
  9. tinkerly
  10. tinkerman
  11. tinkermen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tinkering (page history and authors); tinker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “tinkering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tinkering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.