tweaking

Pluraltweakings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tweak.

   The engineers spent the week tweaking the software before the launch.

   Tweaking the thermostat by a degree or two can lower the heating bill.

   Note

   With an object the form usually means fine-tuning, as in tweaking the software, or, more physically, giving something a sharp pinch and twist, as in tweaking his ear. Without one it slips into slang: in the US, someone who is tweaking is jittery or erratic, as if from methamphetamine, and you're tweaking can also mean you have no idea what is going on.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A minor modification or adjustment; a tweak.

   With some careful tweaking, the old engine ran better than ever.

   The script went through endless tweakings before filming finally began.

   Similaradjustment, modification

   Note

   The noun works both ways: uncountable for adjustment as an activity (it needs some tweaking) and countable for the separate small changes, which can pile up in the plural. Grace Glueck stretches it in 2007 to human tweakings of the landscape, set beside despoliation, where the lightness of the word sharpens the damage it describes.

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