TWEAKÜ

intransitive verb (Drugs) In the slang of drug users, especially in the US: to suffer from nervous twitching, mental disturbance, etc. as a result of addiction to a drug. Etymology: Formed by using what would normally be a transitive verb intransitively; a reference to the involuntary twitching associated with withdrawal from drugs, as though the person were being tweaked. An earlier sense in drugs slang had been 'to inject heroin', and heroin users are sometimes known as tweakers. History and Usage: Although no doubt in spoken use among drug users for some years, this sense of tweak only began to appear in print in the late eighties as a result of media interest in the growing drugs problem in the US. Redneck, tweaking as the coke wears off, erupts when he hears that. He begins smashing his right hand into a wall. Newsweek 25 Apr. 1988, p. 64 Then there are wounds inflicted with knives, baseball bats and other weapons when drug users are 'tweaking', the street jargon for the volatile behavior that accompanies crack. New York Times 6 Aug. 1989, section 1, p. 1