[f. prec. sb.]
In all senses usually depreciative.
1. intr. To work as a tinker; to mend metal utensils (and hence gen. any material objects), esp. in a clumsy, bungling, or imperfect way.
1592–1857. [see TINKERING vbl. sb. and ppl. a.].
b. fig. To work at something (immaterial) clumsily or imperfectly, esp. in the way of attempted repair or improvement; also more vaguely, to occupy oneself about something in a trifling or aimless way; to trifle, potter. Const. at, with.
1658. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., verse 14. xiii. (1669), 53/1. He that will be tinkering with his own heart, and not seek out to Heaven for help, will in the end where he mends one hole, he’ll make two worse.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xiii. 134. When in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory harness-rings.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lviii. 258. The public were tired of government which merely tinkered at legislation.
1894. Jessopp, Random Roaming, Pref. 5. A work of art does not admit of being tinkered at indefinitely.
2. trans. To mend as a tinker; to repair or put into shape in an imperfect or makeshift way; to patch up. a. material objects; also, human beings (in reference to medical or surgical treatment).
1814. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 240. However we may tinker them [our machines] up for a while, all will at length surcease motion.
1835. F. B. Head, in Smiles, Mem. J. Murray (1891), II. xxxi. 362. The waters will tinker you up in a most extraordinary manner.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 325/1. If the old article were of good quality, it was polished and tinkered up for sale in the Saturday evening street-markets, and often ‘went off well.’
1885. S. O. Jewett, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 209/2. She tinkered the rickety beehives.
1892. C. T. Dent, Mountaineer., ii. 68. An axe that does not come out right at first can rarely be tinkered into a good one by alterations.
b. fig. (immaterial things).
1753. [see TINKERING vbl. sb.].
1768. H. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, Pref. 6. Chronology and astronomy are forced to tinker up and reconcile, as well as they can, those uncertainties [of ancient history]. Ibid. (1768), Lett. to Gray, 18 Feb. I am criticised for the expression tinker up in the preface. I think such a low expression, placed to ridicule an absurd instance of wise folly, very forcible.
1866. Bright, Sp. Reform, 20 Nov. (1876), 388. The Tory party refused even to have it tinkered.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, II. xxv. 257. Little plans of adjustment were tinkered up and tried.
1887. Lowell, Democr., 38. Men are prone to be tinkering the work of their own hands.
c. Pugilistic slang. To batter, maul.
1826. Sporting Mag., XVIII. 253. Tom completely tinkered his antagonist’s upper-crust.
Hence Tinkered ppl. a.; also Tinkerer, one who tinkers or works at mending something in a clumsy or ineffective way.
1862. Lytton, Str. Story, xx. I clamped and soldered dogma to dogma in the links of my *tinkered logic.
1867. Froude, Short Stud., I. 40. The reconciliation … is no tinkered-up truce, or convenient Interim.
1906. Athenæum, 28 April, 505/3. He reprints Hayley’s tinkered version … instead of the editio princeps in John Duncombe’s ‘Works of Horace in English Verse’
1894. W. H. Hotchkiss, in Review of Rev., XI. June, 683/1. An examination of the checks on the charter tinkerer in other constitutions, therefore, becomes interesting, if not prophetic of the action of the New York Convention this year.
