Meaning

(transitive) To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.
2. (transitive, informal) To adjust slightly; to fine-tune.
3. (transitive) To tease, to annoy; to get under the skin of (someone, typically so as to irritate them, or by extension to enamor, frighten, etc).
4. (intransitive, US, slang) To abuse methamphetamines, especially crystal meth.
5. (intransitive, US, slang) To exhibit extreme nervousness, evasiveness when confronted by authorities, compulsiveness, erratic motion, excitability, etc, due to or mimicking the symptoms of methamphetamine abuse.
6. (intransitive, slang, by extension) To be extremely confused; to have no clue what is happening.
7. (military, weaponry, uncommon) From a catapult, to strike a target with a missile.
8. A sharp pinch or jerk; a twist or twitch.

Example Sentences

to tweak the nose.

If we tweak the colors towards blue, it will look more natural.

Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.[…]But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.

Yet on January 10th, only weeks before the charter was due to come into force, the prime minister said his government was tweaking the draft.

Oh, he loved to tweak people and say things like "Hiya sweetums" to me because that was not exactly de rigueur in front of a bunch of strong feminists. He had this enormous sense of humor. I never knew what he was going to say.

I know what kinds of intervals and melodies tweak people—I know how to make people's skin crawl, how to make them shiver. I can't say it works on all listeners. There are some people, such as overly trained composers and theorists ...

“Russia needs leadership and he knows how to tweak people.” He grinned, “He made a convert of me,” chuckling. “I wanted to lead him by the hand, now I follow him like a puppy dog.”

But I know he likes to tweak people. For a while he was giving Colette, the receptionist, a hard time, until she learned to ignore him. But that ability that lets him see how to tweak people makes him a superb salesman.

Word Forms

• tweaks
• tweaking
• tweaked

Synonyms for tweak

Related Words

When Should You Use Tweak?

Use tweak when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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