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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tweak.

To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/twiːk/
  1. To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.

    transitive
    to tweak the nose.
  2. To adjust slightly; to fine-tune.

    informal · transitive
    If we tweak the colors towards blue, it will look more natural.
  3. To tease, to annoy; to get under the skin of (someone, typically so as to irritate them, or by extension to enamor, frighten, etc).

    transitive
  4. To abuse methamphetamines, especially crystal meth.

    US · intransitive · slang
  5. To exhibit extreme nervousness, evasiveness when confronted by authorities, compulsiveness, erratic motion, excitability, etc, due to or mimicking the symptoms of methamphetamine abuse.

    US · intransitive · slang
  6. To be extremely confused; to have no clue what is happening.

    broadly · intransitive · slang
    Am I tweaking or does 2020 feel like 6 months ago?
  7. From a catapult, to strike a target with a missile.

    uncommon
Where this word comes from

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

noun/twiːk/
  1. A sharp pinch or jerk; a twist or twitch.

    a tweak of the nose
  2. A slight adjustment or modification.

    He is running so many tweaks it is hard to remember how it looked originally.
  3. Trouble; distress; tweag.

  4. A prostitute.

    obsolete · slang
  5. Methamphetamine.

    slang
  6. A single inhalation of cocaine.

    slang
  7. An additional input to a block cipher, used in conjunction with the key to select the permutation computed by the cipher.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

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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.