▪ I. tweak, n.1
(twiːk)
Also 8 tweague, 8–9 tweag.
[f. tweak v.]
1. An act of tweaking; a sharp wringing pull; a twitch, a pluck.
| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. v, Hee will..make you beare a blow, ouer the mouth,..tweakes by the nose, sans numbre. 1716 Addison Drummer v. i, He has given my shoulder such a cursed tweak. 1738 Common Sense II. 106 They may be drawn out of their Sockets with a moderate Tweag. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. vi. vii. (1861) 216 [He] was courteously dismissed with a tweak of the nose, to assist him in recollecting his message. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xxiv, A severe tweak of the ear. 1883 Mag. of Art June 309/2 Tweaks and slaps and pinches. |
† 2. fig. a. In phrase in a tweak, in a state of excitement or agitation, in a ‘taking’. Obs.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tweak, in a Tweak, in a heavy taking,..very angry. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tweag or Tweak, Perplexity, Trouble; as To be in a sad Tweak. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. vi, This put the old fellow in a rare tweag [ed. 1755 tweague]! 1755 Johnson, Tweague, Tweak, perplexity; ludicrous distress. A low word. 1779 Warner in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) IV. 12 What a tweague and a taking you would be in. 1841 Hartshorne Salopia Antiqua 602 ‘To be in a tweag’ is a phrase of long standing, and not peculiarly dialectical. |
b. dial. See quots.
| 1881 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bd., Tweak, a sharp, severe attack of illness—‘a pinch’. 1886 Darlington S. Chesh. Gloss., Tweak,..a sharp, severe pain. |
Add: 3. colloq. a. Something added beyond the basic requirements (esp. to a motor vehicle); an additional feature or embellishment; an optional extra.
| 1983 Automotive Industries Oct. 36/3 Additional tweaks include a rear stabilizer bar, a larger front bar, [etc.]. 1986 N.Z. Listener 15 Feb. 46/3 Body tweaks include body-colour-painted urethane bumpers..and new Jan Beck interiors. 1990 Your Amiga Mar. 25/2 The game is very neat and the ability to edit the levels is an additional tweak. |
b. A small modification or adjustment made to improve the efficiency of a mechanism. colloq.
| 1986 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 24 Mar. 66/2 The handling qualities adjustments are described more as ‘tweaks’..rather than requiring any major changes in the aircraft design. 1989 Car & Driver Oct. 50/2 Cadillac's engineers have also made some worthwhile tweaks to the Allanté's front suspension. |
▪ II. † tweak, n.2 Obs. slang.
Also 7 tweake.
[? from tweak n.1 or v.]
A harlot; ‘also, a whoremonger’ (Halliwell).
| 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel iv. iv, Your tweaks are like your mermaids, they have sweet voices to entice the passengers. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Char. Painter 134 Hee sometimes playes the witty satyrist, and displayes light tweakes in loose roabes. 1638 ― Barnabees Jrnl. i. D v, An apt one To be Tweake unto a Captaine. Ibid. iii. R vij, From the bushes neare the Lane there Rush'd a Tweake in gesture flanting. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 146 If any man here be in bodily fear, Of a Wolf, a Wife, or a Tweak. |
▪ III. tweak, v.
(twiːk)
Also 7 tweake; β. 7–8 (9 dial.) tweag, 8 tweague.
[Of obscure origin: cf. twick v.]
1. trans. To seize and pull sharply with a twisting movement; to pull at with a jerk; to twitch, wring, pluck; esp. to pull (a person) by the nose (or a person's nose) as a mark of contempt or insult; † to press (the lips) together so as to pinch.
| α 1601 Holland Pliny xi. xxiv. I. 324 These Spiders hunt also after the yong Lizards:..they catch hold and tweake both their lips together, and so bite and pinch them. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 601 Who calles me Villaine?.. Tweakes me by th' Nose? giues me the Lye i' th' Throate..? 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 974 To rouze him..He tweak'd his Nose, with gentle Thump Knock'd on his Breast. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxvi, He seized me by the nose, which he tweaked so unmercifully, that I roared with anguish. 1795 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Hair Powder Wks. 1812 III. 305 With hot pincers tweak each nose and ear! 1816 Scott Old Mort. iv, I will tweak thy proboscis or nose. 1826 F. Reynolds Life & Times I. 111 [He] tweaked our crabbed oppressor by the nose. 1858 Bailey Age 148 He'd have tweaked your head clean off your shoulders. 1913 Blackw. Mag. June 796/1 She tweaked the coiffure of her much-enduring parent into position. |
| β 1685 Crowne Sir C. Nice iii. Dram. Wks. 1874 III. 296 I'll not only libel him, but tweag him by the nose, kick him, cudgel him. 1738 Common Sense II. 106 They are all tweag'd into a Degree of Insensibility, which may incapacitate them for smelling a Fox. 1755 J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) II. 139 Sweetwood stretched forth his hand and tweaged his nose. 1841 Hartshorne Salopia Antiqua 602. 1876 Mid-Yorks. Gloss., Tweag.., to tweak. |
† 2. fig. (See quot., and cf. tweak n.1 2 a.) Obs.
| 1721 Bailey, To Tweag, to Tweak (tweken, Du. to pinch), to put into a Fret or Perplexity. [Not in Johnson.] |
3. slang. To hit with a missile from a catapult. Cf. tweaker.
| 1898 Kipling Stalky in Windsor Mag. Dec. 35 Corkran, through the roof, scientifically ‘tweaked’ a frisky heifer on the nose. |
4. Cricket. colloq. Of a bowler: to impart spin to (the ball).
| 1958 D. Bradman Art of Cricket 94/1 My pal..R. W. V. Robins, tweaked his leg breaks so hard that he left the ground altogether with both feet. |
5. To make fine adjustments to (a mechanism).
| 1966 Punch 16 Feb. 233/1 He has been running a Morris 1100 ‘tweaked so it'll do nearly 100’. 1971 Daily Tel. 13 Oct. 11/1 The three-litre V6 engines..have been ‘tweaked’ to produce eight per cent. more power. 1978 Gramophone May 1960/1 It was possible to improve its performance very considerably by ‘tweaking’ the internal pre-set controls. |
Hence tweaked ppl. a., ˈtweaking vbl. n.
| 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. v, Good, Sir John, leaue tweaking, you'll blow his nose off. 1894 H. Spencer in Life Mrs. Lynn Linton xxi. (1901) 311 To return to the tweaking of the nose above indicated. 1900 Daily News 15 Nov. 6/1 This tweaked-up eyebrow..carries the idea of evil to the modern audience. 1949 E. M. Wellings in Boys' Bk. of Cricket 78/1 Most right-handed off-break bowlers do their spinning largely with the forefinger. Personally I do not even have that finger resting on the ball when bowling an off-break. My ‘tweaking’ is done by the middle finger. 1975 Drive Nov.–Dec. 90/3 These engine hiccups are the result of carburettor tweaking that has been necessary to bring cars in line with current exhaust emission regulations. 1983 Australian Personal Computer Sept. 123/1 Most parallel [daisy-wheel] printers should work with a little tweaking. |
▸ Also in form tweek. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.). a. intr. With out. To become agitated or excited, esp. as a result of drug use (usually amphetamine or methamphetamine). Also trans.: to cause (a person) to become agitated or stimulated in this way. Cf. to freak out at freak v. 3.
| 1981 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 28 Dec. a20/2, I just totally tweeked out from there on in. 1985 ‘J. Blowdryer’ Mod. Eng. 81 When everybody is on speed, they are tweakin' out on speed. 1993 Oregonian (Nexis) 10 Dec. 34 After all, being proclaimed a rock 'n' roll savior is bound to tweak you out after a while. 1996 URB Dec.–Jan. 104/2 The end result was a night of ravers tweaking-out to fry-daddy acid. 2007 Farmington (New Mexico) Daily Times (Nexis) 23 Aug. She was off her meds, she started self-medicating with meth and just tweaked out. |
b. intr. To become agitated, twitchy, or stimulated as a result of drug use (usually amphetamine or methamphetamine). Hence also: to take methamphetamine, or be under the influence of the drug or its after-effects. Also occas. trans. (in pass.).
| 1985 Los Angeles Times 4 June (San Diego Co.) v6/1 Other kids seem to look up to me because I make crystal meth and have been successful at it... Mentally, I'm just about tweaked to the max all the time. 1988 Sunday Oregonian (Nexis) 27 Nov. d13 Tweeking is taking a lot of crank and staying up for days because hallucinations, or ‘meth monsters’, make sleep impossible. 1991 E. Currie Dope & Trouble ii. ii. 108 I'd start tweaking but not like real heavy? And then like all these peanuts were falling down. It was weird... What were you tweaking on?.. Camouflage. You know what that is? It's a kind of acid. 2003 H. Woodbury What Ever iii x. 120 Okay. Let's tweak. 2007 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) (Herald-Times ed.) 11 Mar. a2/6 The man told the woman he was ‘tweaking’, a commonly-used term for heavy methamphetamine use. |