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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tinker.

An itinerant tinsmith and mender of household utensils made of metal.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɪŋkə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɪŋkə]Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɪŋkɚ/General-American[ˈtʰɪŋkɚ] ~ [ˈtʰɪŋkɹ̩]General-American
  1. An itinerant tinsmith and mender of household utensils made of metal.

  2. A member of the Irish Traveller community or of other itinerant groups; a gypsy.

    Ireland · UK · dated · offensive
  3. A mischievous person, especially a playful, impish youngster.

    usually
  4. Someone who repairs, or attempts repair, on anything mechanical, or who invents such devices; one who tinkers; a tinkerer.

  5. An act of repair or invention.

    informal
    I'll have a tinker and see what I can do.
  6. A hand mortar.

    obsolete
  7. Any of various fish: chub mackerel, silverside, skate, or young mackerel about two years old.

  8. A razor-billed auk, a bird of species (Alca torda).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English tynkere, perhaps from Old English *tincere, from tin (“tin”) + *cere, as in bēocere (“beekeeper”).

verb/ˈtɪŋkə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɪŋkə]Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɪŋkɚ/General-American[ˈtʰɪŋkɚ] ~ [ˈtʰɪŋkɹ̩]General-American
  1. To work as a tinker.

    intransitive
  2. To fiddle with something in an attempt to fix, mend or improve it, especially in an experimental or unskilled manner.

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tynkere, perhaps from Old English *tincere, from tin (“tin”) + *cere, as in bēocere (“beekeeper”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.