Tinkering

noun
1.
a mender of pots, kettles, pans, etc., usually an itinerant.
2.
an unskillful or clumsy worker; bungler.
3.
a person skilled in various minor kinds of mechanical work; jack-of-all-trades.
4.
an act or instance of tinkering:
Let me have a tinker at that motor.
5.
Scot., Irish English.

a gypsy.
any itinerant worker.
a wanderer.
a beggar.

6.
chub mackerel.
verb (used without object)
7.
to busy oneself with a thing without useful results:
Stop tinkering with that clock and take it to the repair shop.
8.
to work unskillfully or clumsily at anything.
9.
to do the work of a tinker.
verb (used with object)
10.
to mend as a tinker.
11.
to repair in an unskillful, clumsy, or makeshift way.
noun
1.
(esp formerly) a travelling mender of pots and pans
2.
a clumsy worker
3.
the act of tinkering
4.
(Scot & Irish) another name for Gypsy
5.
(Brit, informal) a mischievous child
6.
any of several small mackerels that occur off the North American coast of the Atlantic
verb
7.
(intransitive) foll by with. to play, fiddle, or meddle (with machinery, etc), esp while undertaking repairs
8.
to mend (pots and pans) as a tinker
In addition to the idiom beginning with tinker