tamper means A person or thing that tamps.; A tool used to tamp something down, such as tobacco in a pipe. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 68 out of 100.
tamper is pronounced /ˈtæm.pə(ɹ)/.
Etymology
From tamp + -er.
noun
- 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
- To make unauthorized or improper alterations, sometimes causing deliberate damage; to meddle (with something).“tamper detection”
- To try to influence someone, usually in an illegal or devious way; to try to deal (with someone).“Prosecutors argued that he would tamper with witnesses if bail was granted.”
- To meddle (with something) in order to corrupt or pervert it.“[…] No Art used to inflame him, no Coquetry practised to tempt or intice him, and no Prudery or Affectation to tamper with his Passions; but, on the contrary, artless and unpractised in the Wiles of the World, all her Endeavours, and even all her Wishes, tended only to render herself as un-amiable as she could in his Eyes:”
- To involve oneself (in a plot, scheme, etc.).“1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-holder, No. 31, 6 April, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, p. 180,
[…] he was beheaded upon the Defeat of the Conspiracy for having but thus far tampered in it.”
- To attempt to practise or administer something (especially medicine) without sufficient knowledge or qualifications.“Certainly it is a scurvy strong troublesom purge, therefore ill to be tamperd with by the unskilful […]”
- To discuss future contracts with a player, against league rules.