tweak

Formstweaks, tweaking, tweaked

Pluraltweaks

1. 1
   adjustverbcolloquialtransitive

   To make small adjustments to something so that it works or looks just right.

   Designers tweak the layout after each round of user testing.

   The engineers tweaked the software to squeeze out a little more battery life.

   Similaradjust, refine, modify, fine-tune, tune

   Note

   Labeled informal, it is nonetheless at home in serious journalism: The Economist writes of a government tweaking a draft constitution only weeks before it was due to come into force. The word promises small changes, from colors nudged toward blue to a few lines of code, and it implies that the thing being tweaked basically works already.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A slight adjustment or modification to something, such as a design, a plan, or a setting.

   The new model is mostly unchanged, with a few cosmetic tweaks to the grille and headlights.

   A simple tweak to the checkout page doubled the number of completed orders.

   Similaradjustment, modification, change, refinement

3. 3
   pinch and twistverbtransitive

   To pinch and pull something with a sudden jerk and twist.

   The clown leaned down and tweaked the boy's nose, and the whole audience laughed.

   Relatives who tweak children's cheeks at family gatherings rarely realize how much it stings.

   Similarpinch, twist, tug

   Note

   Old English twiccian meant to pluck, and twitch is a close relative, which suits a movement that is quick, small and a little sharp. The classic targets are a nose or a cheek, and the gesture can be playful or can sting. The later senses of adjusting and teasing keep that small, sudden pressure, as in the "fine-tune" meaning.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A sharp pinch or jerk, or a quick twist or twitch.

   He greeted the toddler with a gentle tweak of the nose.

   Two sharp tweaks on his sleeve told him his daughter wanted to leave.

   Similarpinch, tug, twist, jerk

5. 5
   act restlessverbslangUSintransitive

   To behave in an extremely nervous, excitable, compulsive, or erratic way, or evasively when facing authorities, from methamphetamine abuse or as if from it.

   Witnesses said the suspect was tweaking, pacing the parking lot and scratching at his arms.

   Whenever the manager walks in, Kyle seems to tweak, fidgeting and dodging every question.

   Note

   Here the word describes behavior rather than drug use, and it can be said of someone who only looks as if they were on methamphetamine: pacing, scratching, fidgeting, dodging questions when authority appears. Said of a sober person, it carries an implied accusation, so it is slang for friends and street talk, not a neutral way to describe a stranger.

6. 6
   teaseverbtransitive

   To tease or annoy someone; to get under their skin, usually to irritate them but sometimes to charm or frighten them instead.

   The columnist enjoys tweaking her critics with sly references to their old mistakes.

   A good horror score knows how to tweak an audience, raising goosebumps with a single note.

   Similartease, needle, rib, bait

   Note

   The pinch has become a verbal one, aimed at people's nerves, and the usual pattern is tweak people: he loved to tweak people, she knows how to tweak people. Most often it means needling someone for fun or for advantage, but a composer can tweak listeners by making their skin crawl and a persuasive leader can tweak doubters into followers, so the effect depends on who is doing it.

7. 7
   abuse drugsverbslangUSintransitive

   To abuse the drug methamphetamine, especially in the form of crystal meth.

   Once he began to tweak, he stopped showing up for work.

   She spent most of her twenties tweaking in a run-down motel outside Phoenix.

   Note

   US street slang from the methamphetamine scene, and the word may be a blend of twitch and freak rather than a straight descendant of the pinching verb. Outside that world, plain English says that someone uses or abuses methamphetamine; the jittery behavior the drug brings has a slang verb of its own.

8. 8
   confusedverbslangintransitive

   To be extremely confused, with no idea of what is actually going on.

   Either I'm tweaking or that car just drove past us twice.

   Anyone who thinks the sequel beat the original is tweaking.

   Similartrip

   Note

   It is online slang, and it nearly always takes the -ing form. Am I tweaking? asks whether you are imagining things, as when a site seems to vanish for a second; you're tweaking tells someone their opinion is wildly off. Am I tripping? works the same way, and both stretch the jittery, drug-fueled meaning into plain confusion.

9. 9
   drugnounslanguncountable

   The drug methamphetamine.

   The town has struggled with tweak ever since a lab opened in an abandoned farmhouse.

   Detectives seized several bags of tweak during the raid.

   Similarmeth, crank, ice

   Note

   The noun belongs with the verb for using the drug and is usually uncountable: bags of tweak, a town struggling with tweak. Like the verb, it is a word for dialogue and reported speech rather than for neutral prose.

10. 10
    encryptionnouncountable

    An extra input to a block cipher that works together with the key to determine which permutation the cipher computes.

    The disk encryption scheme uses each sector's number as the tweak.

    Changing the tweak produces a completely different ciphertext, even under the same key.

    Note

    Cryptographers use it to vary a cipher without changing the key: the key stays fixed while the tweak changes from block to block, so identical data stored in two places encrypts to different ciphertext. Unlike the key, it need not be kept secret, which is why disk encryption can use something as public as a sector number.

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