tweak English
Noun
( en noun)
A sharp pinch or jerk; a twist or twitch.
- a tweak of the nose .
Trouble; distress; tweag.
A slight adjustment or modification.
- He is running so many tweaks it is hard to remember how it looked originally.
(obsolete, slang) A prostitute.
* 1638 , , Barnabae Itinerarium: or Drunken Barnaby's four journeys to the north of England : In latin and english metre , Thomas Gent (1852), page 113:
- […] Thence to Bautree, as I came there, / From the bushes near the lane, there / Rush'd a tweak in gesture flanting / With a leering eye, and wanton : / But my flesh I did subdue it / Fearing lest my purse should rue it.
Verb
( en verb)
To pinch and pull with a sudden jerk and twist; to twitch.
-
(informal) To adjust slightly; to fine-tune.
-
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Boundary problems
, passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.
To twit or tease.
(intransitive, US, slang) To abuse methamphetamines, especially crystal meth.
(intransitive, US, slang) To exhibit symptoms of methamphetamine abuse, such as extreme nervousness, compulsiveness, erratic motion, excitability; possibly a blend of twitch and freak.
(intransitive, US, slang) To exhibit extreme nervousness, evasiveness when confronted by law enforcement or other authority (e.g., customs agents, border patrol, teacher, etc.), mimicking methamphetamine abuse symptoms.
Derived terms
* (drug abuser) tweaker, (US)
* (drug abuse) tweaking
References
*
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fix English
Alternative forms
* fixe (archaic)
Noun
( es)
A repair or corrective action.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=( The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Our banks are out of control
, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.}}
-
A difficult situation; a quandary or dilemma.
-
(informal) A single dose of an addictive drug administered to a drug user.
* (Alain Jourgensen)
- "Just one fix !"
A prearrangement of the outcome of a supposedly competitive process, such as a sporting event, a game, an election, a trial, or a bid.
*
A determination of location.
-
(US) fettlings (mixture used to line a furnace)
Synonyms
* See also
Verb
(obsolete) To pierce; now generally replaced by transfix.
# (by extension) (Of a piercing look) to direct at someone.
- He fixed me with a sickly grin, and said, "I told you it wouldn't work!"
To attach; to affix; to hold in place.
- A dab of chewing gum will fix your note to the bulletin board.
- A leech can fix itself to your skin without you feeling it.
# (transitive, figuratively, usually in the passive) To focus or determine (oneself, on a concept); to fixate.
- She's fixed on the idea of becoming a doctor.
To mend, to repair.
- That heater will start a fire if you don't fix it.
(informal) To prepare (food).
- She fixed dinner for the kids.
To make (a contest, vote, or gamble) unfair; to privilege one contestant or a particular group of contestants, usually before the contest begins; to arrange immunity for defendants by tampering with the justice system via bribery or extortion[Sutherland, Edwin H. (ed) (1937): The Professional Thief: by a Professional Thief. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Reprinted by various publishers in subsequent decades.]]
- A majority of voters believed the election was fixed in favor of the incumbent.
(transitive, US, informal) To surgically render an animal, especially a pet, infertile.
- Rover stopped digging under the fence after we had the vet fix him.
(transitive, mathematics, sematics) To map a (point or subset) to itself.
(informal) To take revenge on, to best; to serve justice on an assumed miscreant.
- He got caught breaking into lockers, so a couple of guys fixed him after work.
To render (a photographic impression) permanent by treating with such applications as will make it insensitive to the action of light.
(transitive, chemistry, biology) To convert into a stable or available form.
- Legumes are valued in crop rotation for their ability to fix nitrogen.
- (Abney)
To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.
* (rfdate) (Waller)
- Your kindness banishes your fear, / Resolved to fix forever here.
To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.
- (Francis Bacon)
Synonyms
* (make a contest unfair) doctor, rig
* (render infertile) neuter, spay, desex, castrate
* See also
Antonyms
* (to hold in place) move, change
Derived terms
* affix, affixative, fixed
* fixings, fixity, fixety
* fix someone's wagon, fix someone up with
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