Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Origin: Probably from temper

tamper

 verb
     
tam‧per

tamper with something

phrasal verb
to touch something or make changes to it without permission, especially in order to deliberately damage it:
He noticed that the instruments had been tampered with.
I don't see the point in tampering with a system that's worked fine so far.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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