Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🛑 To interfere 🔨 A pressing tool
to tamper

to tamper

113 4.9
To interfere with something without permission in a harmful or dishonest way
  • verb
  • /ˈtæmpər/
translation icon : manipular
  • - It's against the law to tamper with those locks.

So on the whole, nobody's going to tamper with food.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • And if the peace treaty is tampered with, that could be a terrible problem.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Authenticating all content, including routing and policy information, prevents data from being spoofed or tampered with.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Why on earth would anyone want to tamper with her traps?

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Have you tampered with this tape in any way?

    The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

  • Someone with that access has been tampering.

    Tron (1982)

  • Anyone who looked at the two buses would see they had been tampered with.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I think somebody's been tampering with my software.

    Virtuosity (1995)

  • Okay, Herman, someone's trying to tamper with the security circuits.

    The China Syndrome (1979)

  • The Russians exfiltrated and disseminated private information but did not tamper with voting machines or change votes.

    Academic text (2017)

  • It's illegal to tamper with official documents.

Synonyms

to interfere
vsto tamper
487 3.5

To get involved in a situation and make things not work as they should

is about harmful or dishonest involvement rather than simple participation
to fuck with
vsto tamper
  • Offensive
225 9.9

To mess with someone's things or plans on purpose to cause trouble

is used when the act annoys or disrupts rather than being dishonest
to meddle
vsto tamper
80 5.7

To get involved in other people's business and annoy them

stresses that the act harms or cheats rather than being only unwanted involvement
to monkey
vsto tamper
  • Informal
11 8.2

To touch or change something in a secret, careless way

is about harmful or dishonest involvement rather than secret ineffective handling
to fiddle
vsto tamper
  • Informal
5 8.0

To cheat by changing records or numbers to hide facts

is broader covering harmful or unwanted acts beyond deliberate cheating

Antonyms

to protect
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

to preserve
496 3.4

To keep people and things safe from harm or change

How Harmful

to sabotage
164 7.1
to tamper
113 4.9
to interfere
487 3.5
to meddle
80 5.7

Surface Forms

tamper infinitive
tampered past
tampered past participle
tampering present participle
tampers third person singular

Morphology

tamper = tamp (opaque) = tamp + er

Although the form suggests 'tamp' + '-er', the sense 'to interfere with' is not derivable from 'tamp' (to pack down); the meanings have diverged or evolved, so the relation is not useful for learners.

Etymology

Tamper as a verb is easy to remember from the idea of tamp 'to press down' or from the small tool that changes what is inside something; a helpful way to think of it is 'to mess with' something you should not touch. That's why to tamper with something means to interfere with or secretly change it, often in a harmful way.