Sekirov Dictionary

tamper

/ˈtæm.pə(ɹ)/

verb 6
noun 4
forms 5

verb6

•
To make unauthorized or improper alterations, sometimes causing deliberate damage; to meddle (with something).
- 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.
•
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.
- She therefore dissuaded Julia from attempting to tamper with the honesty of a servant who had the keys of the vaults […] — 1790
(US, Canada) To discuss future contracts with a player, against league rules.
•
(no longer used) To involve oneself (in a plot, scheme, etc.).
- […] he was beheaded upon the Defeat of the Conspiracy for having but thus far tampered in it. — 1716
•
(no longer used) 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 […] — 1649

noun4

A person or thing that tamps.
A tool used to tamp something down, such as tobacco in a pipe.
A railway vehicle used to tamp down ballast.
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.

forms

tampered · tampering · tampereth · tampers · tamperest

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