meddle

meddle, interfere, intermeddle, tamper are comparable when they mean to busy or concern oneself with someone or something officiously, impertinently, or indiscreetly.

One meddles with or in something that is not one's concern or is strictly the affair or the responsibility of another or of others; the term usually suggests the interposition of oneself without right or without permission or authorization

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it would be better if government meddled no farther with trade than to protect it— Franklin

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his enemies accused him . . . of . . . meddling in matters which did not belong to him— Newman

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it is inexpedient to meddle with questions of state in a land where men are highly paid to work them out for you— Kipling

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One interferes (see also INTERPOSE 2) with someone or something or in something when one meddles, whether intentionally or not, in such a way as to hinder, frustrate, molest, check, or defeat

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a physicist is not interfering with nature, any more than an architect is interfering with nature when he directs the building of a house— Darrow

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the Puritans made life in many ways a great deal less pleasant for the poor by interfering with their leisure— Lewis & Maude

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One intermeddles with or in something when one meddles impertinently and officiously and in such a way as to interfere

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the board of control had no right whatsoever to intermeddle in the business— Burke

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a petition to parliament sets forth how all kinds of unlearned men intermeddle with the practice of physic— Coulton

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One tampers with someone or something when one seeks to make unwarranted alterations, to perform meddlesome experiments, or to exert an improper influence; the term need not suggest corruption or clandestine operation

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provided, the farmer said, nobody had been tampering with any of his witnesses— Meredith

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money and sex are forces too unruly for our reason; they can only be controlled by taboos with which we tamper at our peril— L. P. Smith

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the goal of the search was fixed; it was sacrilegious and dangerous to tamper with the dogmas— Thilly

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Analogous words: *intrude, obtrude, interlope, butt in: *interpose, interfere, intervene: discommode, incommode, trouble, *inconvenience