tamper

Plural: tampers

Noun

• a tool for tamping (e.g., for tamping tobacco into a pipe bowl or a charge into a drill hole etc.)
• A person or thing that tamps.
• A tool used to tamp something down, such as tobacco in a pipe.
• A person or thing that tamps.
• A railway vehicle used to tamp down ballast.
• A person or thing that tamps.
• An envelope of neutron-reflecting material in a nuclear weapon, used to delay the expansion of the reacting material and thus produce a longer-lasting and more energetic explosion.

Verb

Verb Forms: tampered, tampering, tampers

• To meddle or interfere with something, often in a harmful way.
• play around with or alter or falsify, usually secretively or dishonestly
  • "Someone tampered with the documents on my desk"
• intrude in other people's affairs or business; interfere unwantedly
• To make unauthorized or improper alterations, sometimes causing deliberate damage; to meddle (with something).
• To try to influence someone, usually in an illegal or devious way; to try to deal (with someone).
• To meddle (with something) in order to corrupt or pervert it.
• To involve oneself (in a plot, scheme, etc.).
• To attempt to practise or administer something (especially medicine) without sufficient knowledge or qualifications.
• To discuss future contracts with a player, against league rules.

Examples

• Prosecutors argued that he would tamper with witnesses if bail was granted.
• tamper detection
• The alarm had been tampered with and didn’t go off when it should have.
• The election monitors found that a large number of ballots had been tampered with.
• You should never "TAMPER" with the Scrabble bag to get better tiles.

Synonyms

fiddle, meddle, monkey, tamp, tamping bar, ballast tamper, interfere, tamping machine, tap up

Related Words

damper

Anagrams of tamper