Tinkering (with) is a term used to describe the act of making small adjustments or repairs to something. Dabbling in, TOYED, messed, tampered, monkeyed, and fiddled around are all synonyms for tinkering (with). Dabbling in refers to experimenting with something, TOYED implies playing with something, messing suggests making a mess of something, tampering implies interfering with something, monkeyed implies imitating something, and fiddling around implies making small changes to something. All of these terms refer to the same concept of tinkering (with).