tin
1 Americannoun
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Chemistry. a low-melting, malleable, ductile metallic element nearly approaching silver in color and luster: used in plating and in making alloys, tinfoil, and soft solders. Sn; 118.69; 50; 7.31 at 20°C.
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any shallow pan, especially one used in baking.
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any pot, box, can, or other container or vessel made of tin or tin plate.
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Squash. telltale.
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Chiefly British. a hermetically sealed can containing food.
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Slang. a small quantity of an illicit drug, especially from two to five grams of cocaine: usually sold in a small plastic bag, a glassine envelope, or often a small tin container.
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British Slang. money.
adjective
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made or consisting of tin or tin plate.
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false; worthless; counterfeit.
a set of tin values.
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indicating the tenth event of a series, as a wedding anniversary.
verb (used with object)
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Metallurgy.
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to cover or coat with tin.
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to coat with soft solder.
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Chiefly British. to preserve or pack (especially food) in cans; can.
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to cover (windows and doors in an abandoned or unoccupied building or apartment) with sheets of tin to prevent vandalism or occupancy by vagrants, squatters, etc.
noun
noun
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a metallic element, occurring in cassiterite, that has several allotropes; the ordinary malleable silvery-white metal slowly changes below 13.2°C to a grey powder. It is used extensively in alloys, esp bronze and pewter, and as a noncorroding coating for steel. Symbol: Sn; atomic no: 50; atomic wt: 118.710; valency: 2 or 4; relative density: 5.75 (grey), 7.31 (white); melting pt: 231.9°C; boiling pt: 2603°C
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Also called (esp US and Canadian): can. an airtight sealed container of thin sheet metal coated with tin, used for preserving and storing food or drink
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any container made of metallic tin
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to complete a home baking of cakes, biscuits, etc
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Also called: tinful. the contents of a tin or the amount a tin will hold
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corrugated or galvanized iron
a tin roof
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any metal regarded as cheap or flimsy
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a loaf of bread with a rectangular shape, baked in a tin
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slang money
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it lives up to expectations
verb
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to put (food, etc) into a tin or tins; preserve in a tin
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to plate or coat with tin
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to prepare (a metal) for soldering or brazing by applying a thin layer of solder to the surface
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A malleable, silvery metallic element that occurs in igneous rocks. It has a crystalline structure and crackles when bent. Tin is used as an anticorrosion agent and is a part of numerous alloys, including bronze. Atomic number 50; atomic weight 118.71; melting point 231.89°C; boiling point 2,270°C; specific gravity 7.31; valence 2, 4.
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See Periodic Table See Note at element
Other Word Forms
- retin verb (used with object)
- tinlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of tin
before 900; (noun) Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch, Old Norse tin, German Zinn; (v.) Middle English tinnen, derivative of the noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The supermarket said it would stop sourcing fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel by 29 April, as well as tinned mackerel once the current stock sells out.
From BBC
"We do a good service, we get tins, packets, jars, chilled goods, frozen items," Haywood said.
From BBC
Leah later told a story in which the public hated Burr so much that he was pelted with “bricks, broken eggs, sticks, and tin pans” outside the courthouse.
From Literature
The family lived in a one-story house with a tin roof, a wood stove and no indoor plumbing.
Extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, as they are known, shoot lasers into molten tin to create EUV light, which doesn’t exist naturally on earth.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
