fine ˈtuning, vbl. n.
Also fine-tuning.
[f. fine a. + tuning vbl. n.]
a. Minute adjustment of a radio receiver, instrument, etc., so as to achieve exactly the tuning required; the facility for this. Also attrib. b. fig. The policy or process of making a series of fine adjustments to a situation (esp. the economy).
| 1924 Wireless World & Radio Rev. 3 Sept. 659/1 There are many occasions when..it is essential to employ fine tuning adjustments. 1925 Wireless World 11 Mar. 170/2 Fine tuning can be obtained in a variometer-tuned set. 1959 K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) xix. 45 Tuning by means of push buttons offers freedom from fine tuning. 1968 Economist 16 Mar. 79/1 The movement from a sluggish economy to an uninterrupted growth..led many to expect even greater triumphs to come as a result of what is deceptively called the introduction of ‘fine tuning’. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 29 Nov. 6/3 God may have fashioned us all in His image but does that mean we shouldn't do a little fine-tuning of our own? 1983 Nat. Westminster Bank Q. Rev. Feb. 33 The time has come to abandon the concept of fine tuning involving very detailed management of the national economy by means of fiscal policy measures. 1985 Sci. Amer. Apr. 104/2 Parsons..equipped his governor with a fine-tuning mechanism that depended directly on the dynamo voltage. |
Also fine tuner, a device for fine tuning; fig., a person who advocates fine tuning of the economy, etc.
| 1967 W. E. Pannett Dict. Radio & Television 101 Fine tuner, control enabling a signal to be tuned in accurately after the main tuning control has been set. 1976 Business Week 19 July 12/2 Will Burns live up to his reputation as a monetary fine-tuner par excellence or will he again reach for those brakes? 1984 Forbes (N.Y.) 27 Aug. 169 The point about the postwar era that the Keynesian fine-tuners have missed is that..those policies are no longer politically reversible. |