tweaking

verb

present participle of tweak
1
as in twitching
to grasp and move with a small forceful motion Hey, you tweaked my nose!

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2
as in adjusting
to make small adjustments to You can tweak the settings to customize the display. He spent considerable time tweaking the recipe.

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3
as in mocking
to make (someone or something) the object of criticism, amusement, or laughter They're always tweaking me about my northern accent.

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tweaking Shaiman even helped oversee the editing process, painstakingly tweaking his narration. — Brian Raftery, Vanity Fair, 6 Oct. 2026 Central banks were mostly set up initially to backstop banks and eventually began trying to regulate the temperature of economies by tweaking the cost of their funding by moving their overnight interest rates up and down. — Robin Wigglesworth, Fortune, 29 Sep. 2026 This process of tweaking genes to establish new traits is thought to have catalyzed evolutionary novelty in animals. — Jake Buehler, Quanta Magazine, 21 Sep. 2026 The remake delivers these themes and more, slightly tweaking the story to make James' journey feel more Sisyphean. — Zackery Cuevas, PC Magazine, 21 Sep. 2026 McDonald's is one brand Kahn pointed to as having stood the test of time by tweaking its offerings, adjusting to trends and maintaining fresh appeal. — Teresa Mull, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026 CookUnity launched in 2016, with the premise of tweaking the recipe in the increasingly crowded business of serving meals to harried consumers who have little time to cook or prepare dinner. — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026 The heart of the issue, Griffith said, is that the federal government shouldn’t be tweaking tax law to favor individual decisionmaking, like whether to stay home or work as a parent. — Helen Huiskes, The Hill, 9 Sep. 2026 The official South Park Twitter account made a celebratory post, tweaking Trump for being an ex-reality star with fewer Emmys than Trey Parker and Matt Stone. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 7 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tweaking
  1. twitching
  2. adjusting
  3. mocking
  4. pinching
  5. editing
  6. teasing
  7. shaking
  8. modifying
Verb
  • This is not easy for Robin (Griffin), who, judging by his nervously twitching legs and tendency to info-dump on interlocutors, finds ordinary interactions very stressful.
    — Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Green said his symptoms began when his feet started twitching in his sleep.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 30 July 2026
Definition of twitching
Verb
  • If anything, the rest of his family has a harder time adjusting.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 15 Oct. 2026
  • How consumers respond One of the main worries of central bankers is that businesses and consumers may start permanently adjusting their behaviors to account for high prices.
    — Alex Harring, CNBC, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of adjusting
Verb
  • Reels captured everything from dancing and DJ parties at protest sites to songs mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
    — Ayushi Shah, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2026
  • At this point in the shoot, the host segments that serve as interstitials for the movie mocking that made the original a success have all been filmed.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of mocking
Verb
  • And Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers, shut down its pipeline across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea, an alternative route for its oil, as a precaution, pinching the world’s supply of oil even more.
    — Frank Witsil, Freep.com, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Deadhead the dead flowers by hand, pinching and twisting the blooms away from the stems.
    — Ashley Chalmers, The Spruce, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of pinching
Verb
  • Additional reporting by Michael Levitt and Itay Stern, producing by Andrew Mambo, and editing by Carrie Kahn, James Hider and Nishant Dahiya.
    — October 18, NPR, 18 Oct. 2026
  • Jonatan Mose served as cinematographer, with editing handled by Martin Anthon.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of editing
Verb
  • Mahomes began teasing the collection last week with several posts on her Instagram.
    — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 15 Oct. 2026
  • As part of the panel, co-showrunners and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau introduced a new clip teasing the second season, alongside series cast members Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Bella Shepard, Karim Diané and Robert Picardo.
    — Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of teasing
Verb
  • There’s seat-shaking violence in how the whale breaches the surface and slams its weight back down (the crafty sound design is by James Miller) and body horror in its claustrophobic, spongy inner chambers.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Just below the broad smile he’s been wearing all morning, John Ternus’ hands are shaking.
    — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of shaking
Verb
  • Thousands of researchers are constantly modifying these setups, the OpenAI researcher added, with every change risking a compromise to the security of the test.
    — Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Curing the void Rocket Lab said the problem appears to be solved after modifying the manufacturing process again.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of modifying

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Cite this Entry

“Tweaking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tweaking. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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