Crossword clues for tinker
tinker
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Silversides \Sil"ver*sides`\, n. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of small fishes of the family Atherinid[ae], having a silvery stripe along each side of the body. The common species of the American coast ( Menidia notata) is very abundant. Called also silverside, sand smelt, friar, tailor, and tinker.
Brook silversides (Zo["o]l.), a small fresh-water North American fish ( Labadesthes sicculus) related to the marine silversides.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"mender of kettles, pots, pans, etc.," late 14c. (mid-13c. as a surname), of uncertain origin. Some connect the word with the sound made by light hammering on metal. Tinker's damn "something slight and worthless" is from 1824, probably preserving tinkers' reputation for free and casual use of profanity; the plain and simple etymology is not good enough for some writers, and since 1877 an ingeniously elaborate but baseless derivation has been circulated claiming the second word is really dam.
1590s, "to work as a tinker," from tinker (n.). Meaning "work imperfectly, keep busy in a useless way," is first found 1650s. Related: Tinkered; tinkering.
Wiktionary
n. 1 an itinerant tinsmith and mender of household utensils made of tin 2 (context dated chiefly British and Irish offensive English) A member of the travelling community. A gypsy. 3 (context usually with "little" English) A mischievous person, especially a playful, impish youngster. 4 Someone who repairs, or attempts repair on anything mechanical (tinkers) or invents. 5 The act of repair or invention. 6 (context military obsolete English) A small mortar on the end of a staff. 7 Any of various fish: the chub mackerel, the silverside, the skate, or a young mackerel about two years old. 8 A bird, the razor-billed auk. vb. To fiddle with something in an attempt to fix, mend or improve it, especially in an experimental or unskilled manner.
WordNet
n. a person who enjoys fixing and experimenting with machines and their parts [syn: tinkerer]
an itinerant Gypsy
a traveling repairman who mends broken things (such as metal household utensils) [syn: mender, tinkerer]
small mackerel found nearly worldwide [syn: chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus]
v. do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly; "The old lady is usually mucking about in her little house" [syn: putter, mess around, potter, monkey, monkey around, muck about, muck around]
work as a tinker or tinkerer
try to fix or mend; "Can you tinker with the T.V. set--it's not working right"; "She always fiddles with her van on the weekend" [syn: fiddle]
Wikipedia
A tinker or tinkerer was originally an itinerant tinsmith, who mended household utensils.
A tinker is an itinerant tinsmith. It may also refer to:
Tinker was a Canadian alternative rock band, formed in Montréal in 1993 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Steve Durand. The band reached limited success, before Auf der Maur left and became bassist for Hole. Durand and Zadorozny joined Auf der Maur's solo band in 2002 and worked on both of Auf der Maur's studio albums, Auf der Maur and Out of Our Minds.
Tinker is a computer software application for molecular dynamics simulation with a complete and general package for molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics, with some special features for biopolymers. The core of the package is a modular set of callable routines which allow manipulaing coordinates and evaluating potential energy and derivatives via straightforward means.
Tinker works on Windows, Mac, and Unix-Linux and its source code is available free of charge under a restrictive license. The code was written in FORTRAN 77 with common extensions and some C. The code is maintained by Jay Ponder at the Washington University School of Medicine.
The surname Tinker may refer to:
People:
- Carson Tinker (born 1989), American National Football League long snapper
- Clarence L. Tinker (1887-1942), first Native American major general
- Frank Glasgow Tinker (1909-1939), American mercenary pilot and top American ace in the Spanish Civil War
- Grant Tinker (born 1925), former chairman and CEO of the NBC television network, co-founder of MTM Enterprises and former husband of Mary Tyler Moore
- Gerald Tinker (born 1951), American former track and field runner and National Football League player
- HP Tinker (born 1969), British short story writer
- Irene Tinker (born 1927), American Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley
- Jack Tinker (1938-1996), English theatre critic
- Joe Tinker (1880-1948), American Hall-of-Fame Major League Baseball player
- John Tinker (disambiguation)
- Mark Tinker (born 1951), American television producer and director
- Miles Tinker (1893-1977), American author and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota
- Ronald Tinker (1913-1982), New Zealand World War II officer
- Thomas Tinker (c.1581–1620/21), a passenger on the Mayflower
Fictional characters:
- Beth Tinker, on the British soap opera Coronation Street
Usage examples of "tinker".
Here am I with a pack of villains on my hands and no way to convict them of tinkering with the water adjutages, let alone treason!
Tinker dragged to Aum Renau and kept there for three weeks allowed Tinker to strengthen her body, build a strong relationship with Pony, and learn skills she needed to kill Lord Tomtom, the leader of the oni.
Miss Mannering did not think the spirits other benefactress would be elevated by the revelation that a certain ambitious tinker intended blackmail.
For a while his mind left the bewildering cascade of events that had occurred since the day Tirilen had led him down the steep road from the Castle to look at the strange tinker on the village green.
And his doctors tinkered with parts of the caudate region, trying to ensure that Bobby did not suffer from symptoms relating to obsessive-compulsive disorder which led some people to a need for excessive security, order, predictability and ritual, a need in some circumstances satisfied by the membership of religious communities.
The next comber broomed the sea clean and came aboard and grabbed his legs from under him, dragged him against the bowsprit housing, then sucked him back along the deck, Tinker fighting for control again.
When she saw Dobie inside, tinkering with some part on the tractor, she hesitated.
The easy access of a Ditto to his entire under-pinning -- unlike ourselves, with much of our personality lying in our subconscious and not consciously fixable --implies constant change, personality tinkering, perhaps worse.
Tinker asserted his, with the result that his bolt into the Salles de Jeu and his difficult extrication from them by the brawny, but liveried officials was fast becoming one of the events of the day.
On the eve of their departure for Arcachon, Tinker and Elsie were sitting in the gardens of the Temple of Fortune, taking a well-earned rest after a farewell bolt into the Salles de Jeu, in which Elsie also had played a gallant and successful part, for the somewhat obscure reason that it was the last bolt: so strengthening to her character had been companionship with Tinker.
Would he let Tinker Furris get away with crime in order to keep Konk Zitz lulled?
Cliff and Tinker had just returned from dinner, to find Konk holding court with a couple of his thugs.
OUT in the darkness of an alleyway behind the Phoenix Hotel, Cliff and Tinker waited for a full fifteen minutes before Konk Zitz joined them.
Cliff and Tinker were in the back seat of the sedan, so Konk dropped the bag beside him in the front.
With Konk close in back of him, Tinker marched Cliff out through the back door and past the empty house.