vbl. sb. [f. TAMPER v.1 + -ING1.] The action of the verb TAMPER, in various senses: † plotting; meddling, improper interference.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, V. i. There is no tampering with these Cupids longer.
1665. Jeamson, Artificiall Embellishments, II. i. 76. But such medicines are too offensive to the face, by reason of inflamations, and greater redness that happen too often through such tampring.
1738. Birch, Milton, M.’s Wks. I. 32. By reason of his continual Studies and the Head-ach,… and his perpetual tampering with Physic, his Eyes had been decaying for twelve years before.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, xx. There is something strangely pleasing in these tamperings with the future.
a. 1854. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Lit., iv. (1878), 153. It has come down from a remote antiquity, and has … escaped the tampering of modern hands.
