17 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
17 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>frobnicate</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="frob.html" title="frob"/><link rel="next" href="frobnitz.html" title="frobnitz"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">frobnicate</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="frob.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="frobnitz.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="frobnicate"/><dt xmlns="" id="frobnicate"><b>frobnicate</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/frob´ni·kayt/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">vt.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [Poss. derived from <a href="frobnitz.html"><i class="glossterm">frobnitz</i></a>, and usually
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abbreviated to <a href="frob.html"><i class="glossterm">frob</i></a>, but <span class="firstterm">frobnicate</span> is recognized as the official full
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form.:] To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. One frequently frobs bits or
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other 2-state devices. Thus: “<span class="quote">Please frob the light switch</span>”
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(that is, flip it), but also “<span class="quote">Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break
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it</span>”. One also sees the construction <span class="firstterm">to
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frob a frob</span>. See <a href="../T/tweak.html"><i class="glossterm">tweak</i></a> and
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<a href="../T/twiddle.html"><i class="glossterm">twiddle</i></a>.</p><p>Usage: frob, twiddle, and tweak sometimes connote points along a
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continuum. ‘Frob’ connotes aimless manipulation; <span class="firstterm">twiddle</span> connotes gross manipulation, often a
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coarse search for a proper setting; <span class="firstterm">tweak</span> connotes fine-tuning. If someone is
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turning a knob on an oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it, he
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is probably tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the
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screen, he is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because
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turning a knob is fun, he's frobbing it. The variant <span class="firstterm">frobnosticate</span> has been recently
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reported.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="frob.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="frobnitz.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">frob </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> frobnitz</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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