tin n.
1. in context of its metallic qualities.
(a) money, esp. silver.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘The New Police’ in Bell’s Life in London 25 Oct. 2/5: I laughed fit to split my sides; for, thinks I, he’s lost his tin. | |
| ‘Thieves’s Chaunt’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 121: But because she lately nimm’d some tin, / They have sent her to lodge at the King’s Head Inn. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 6 Aug. n.p.: Mr I. here counted out the ‘tin’ ($150 in gold) and Mr A. clyed it. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 25 Feb. 3/3: Mr Percy Simpson [...] called at Jennings’ Committee Rooms with brass in his face and no tin in his pocket. | |
| Mysteries of London II (2nd Ser.) 275: Such a lot of tin, and so easily got! | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 29 Sept. 3/1: His customers fell off; tin was hard to get in. | |
| Young Tom Hall (1926) 54: D’ye think that old griffin of a governor of his would have forked out the tin? | |
| ‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 67: Having sold his crop of cotton an’ fobbed the ‘tin,’ forth sallied Mike with a ‘pocket full of rocks’ and bent on a bit of a spree. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 96/1: Always button up my pockets, / For protection of my tin. | |
| ‘Sunday Trading Bill’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 115: If you have got the tin, sir, / To raise a baked joint for our dinner. | |
| Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 4/1: ‘Proposals for a New Slang Dictionary’ [...] PEWTER.—Noun. Brads, rhino, blunt, dibbs, mopusses, browns, tin, brass, stumpy, &c. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 201/1: This young chap had some tin, and he kept me. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 July 3: £3 in ‘hard tin’ and ‘bub and grub’ to the tune of seventy bob. | |
| Chicago Trib. 25 Sept. 6/6: ‘Don’t forget to send me plenty of pocket money. A fellow can’t do without “tin” here’. | |
| Lays of Ind (1905) 81: ‘The little matter of tin’. | |
| ‘’Arry on the Turf’ Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: My guvnor, he swears he don’t twig, wants to know where the manhood comes in / But the ’orses has got all there is, and the rest’s a low scramble for tin. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 4 Oct. 14/3: [headline] The Thirteen Tramps who are Tirelessly Treading the Tanbark for Tin. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Dec. 3/3: Motto for the Australian Eleven— Score a win / And collar tin. | |
| Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 3 May 2/3: Don’t talk such bosh, / The colour let’s see of your tin. | |
| ‘Story of Prince Agib’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 116: Gave them beer, and eggs, and sweets, and scent, and tin. | |
| ‘Influence and Conviction’ Sporting Times 25 Jan. 1/2: If the Tories think they’ll win through their influence and ‘tin’ / They are nourishing an idiotic fiction. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 2 Sept. 7/5: And he and his ‘fresh’ English mates did up their ‘bally tin’. | |
| ‘De Hottest Coon in Town’ 🎵 Craps dat is my game ... A sporty coon, I’ve got de sand, And likewise got de tin. | |
| [perf. Vesta Tilley] The Daily Male 🎵 On ’Change he drops his tin / For like the popular ‘Daily Mail’ / He’s always taken in. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Jan. 1/7: Them’s the blokes wot’s got the tin. | |
| ‘Pursuing the Subject’ Sporting Times 28 Jan. 1/4: No doubt she’s an old maid with no attraction but her tin! | |
| Magnet 27 Aug. 7: I want you to lend me a little tin until my postal order comes. | |
| ‘Joy Ride’ in Backblock Ballads 102: An’ who’d refuse a drop o’ booze / When pals is flush o’ tin? | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 7: His old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to the Zulus or some such swindle. | |
 | Box of Delights Chapter 1: You’ll have to lend me some tin, for my purse is gone. I haven’t a tosser to my kick. | |
| We Were the Rats 84: ‘Smash, dough, fiddlies, coin, tin, hay, oot, shekels, sponduliks,’ said Gordon. ‘I’m still the highest paid member of this company.’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | ‘Wool, Wether And Wine’ Station Days in Maoriland 75: When he ambled in with his hard earned tin. | |
| Billy Bunter at Butlins 84: Better make sure you’ve got the tin to settle with the driver. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 190/1: tin n. money. |
(b) (US) a trifling amount of money.
| ‘Neat Strip’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 608: Goldstein pays Rose Viola four hundred dollars per week, and this is by no means tin. | |
| (con. 1920s) Hoods (1953) 338: We net close to a hundred grand a year apiece. That ain’t tin. |
(c) (US) a police officer’s or sheriff’s badge [its main component; thus those gifts and favours – free meals, drinks – obtained by showing one’s official badge].
| Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/5: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ’tin,’ money, a detective’s badge. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 229: The ‘Loot’ pulled back the lapel of his coat and showed his tin; and, such is the majesty of the law, all the officials stepped aside. | |
| ‘Dilemma of the Dead Lady’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 60: Fowler palmed his badge at him [...] ‘The tin always wins.’. | |
| ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 ‘And gun this skate,’ I added, flashing my special tin. ‘I’m on police business.’. | |
| et al. DAUL 71/1: Flash the button or tin. To exhibit a badge, genuine or counterfeit, of any law enforcement agent, especially in extortion rackets. | |
| ‘See Him Die’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 101: Donlevy [...] making like a big wheel, with his tin pinned to his coat so everybody could know he was a cop. | |
| ‘The Man with the Golden Tongue’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 72: Matthew glanced quickly at the tin. | |
| After You with the Pistol (1991) 332: ‘Flash the tin,’ I said in my Bogart voice. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 200: Why the hell is it they look at your tin and let you do whatever you want? | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 tin n 1. badge carried by law enforcement officials. (‘Show me some tin.’). | |
| Lush Life 295: I think you have a serious problem. I think at the very least you just lost your tin . | |
| Alphaville (2011) 360: I flashed my tin at the courthouse entrance. |
2. in senses of a container, i.e. a SE tin can.
(a) (US) a drink.
| Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 32: A man ran in and whispered something to the big mate, and then the men all took a ‘stiff tin’ and with oaths and curses started to go to your daddy’s cabin. |
(b) (US) a small container of opium.
| Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: This Victoria hop’s been dribblin’ inter New York [...] at the rate of 50 tins a week. | |
| Hop-Heads 110: Opium of a fair Mexican grade wholesales on this side of the border for $90 a tin in five tael tins of less than half a pound quantity. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 120: The Chinese dealt with dope fiends mainly and secured property worth thousands of dollars for a few ounces of cocaine or morphine or a tin of ‘mud.’. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Opium Smugglers 242: ‘Heavens! Thousands of pounds?’ ‘It’s worth £20 and more a tin,’ said Dick. ‘A tin only about the size of a mustard tin.’. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 241: tin A small amount of opium. | |
| (con. 1930s–40s) Addicts Who Survived 298: I paid forty-five dollars for a tin of opium in 1940. I threw that much away when I used to buy three tins for five dollars. |
(c) a one-gallon can of alcohol.
| Und. and Prison Sl. |
(d) (drugs) 28g (1oz) of marijuana [the selling of marijuana in measures based on the size of a popular brand tobacco tin; the use for cocaine may be a misinterpretation].
| ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 30: TIN, n. About a pound [sic] of marijuana. | |
| Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1959) 120: ‘Do you go for it?’ The Wolf asked. ‘If I’ll go for it I’ll take a tin.’. | |
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). |
(e) (US) a few grains of cocaine.
| NDAS. |
(f) (US campus) beer.
| Campus Sl. Fall 7: tin – beer, in any quantity. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 63: A ‘beer’ is called [...] tin because it comes in cans. |
In compounds
(UK sporting) a very rich man, a millionaire.
| Bk of Sports 261: [note] The swell tinman, hooper, was one of those ‘playthings’ of the great; and [...] he became pampered, insolent, and mischievous. | |
| Referee 14 Nov. in (1909) 246/2: Too many of the big swells found profit in the Tinman to allow him to pass into retirement while able to earn winnings for them if conditions were modified for his benefit. |
(US) a police officer’s wife.
| [bk title] Tin Wife. | |
| NDAS. |
In phrases
(Irish) a trifling, worthless quantity.
| (con. 1910s) Tell me, Sean O’Farrell 47: Some of the ‘bean a tighes’ who got grants for housing students in the Gaeltacht at that time, fed them on the clippin’s of tin. | |
| The People who Drank Water from the River 74: He and his auntie lived, so to speak, on the ‘clippings of tin.’. |
(Aus.) to spend all, one’s money.
| ‘Nocturne’ in Rose of Spadgers 55: Listen – on the square – / I’ve done me tin. I’m bottle-green, dead broke. |
(Aus.) in trouble, in a tight spot.
| Cobbers A.I.F. 13: Then young Johnny swam in slowly, an’ ’is face wus one big grin, / As he menshuned ter the breakers, ‘Whacko, Serg.! Yet in the tin!’ [AND]. | |
| Surf Music 40: ‘Be two months before we’re crushing...’ ‘Plenty o’ time.’ [...] ‘All right for you [...] If I don’t get some sugar soon, I’ll be in the tin.’ [AND]. |
1. to pay out money.
| ‘Jimmy Johnson’s Holiday’ 🎵 He tried to look just like a dook, As he passed thro’ the wicket; The train got in, he jinked his tin, Then went away to dine. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. to rattle one’s change.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
1. to die.
| Border Morn. Mail (NSW) 13 May 2/5: The old Reaper was sure just around the bend. I sort of got determined that he wasn’t getting me [...] and I sold him the idea that I just didn't have time to kick the tin. |
2. to surprise, to unleash a shock.
| Sydney Morn. Herald 31 Dec. 6/8: December 8 [i.e. Pearl Harbor]was the date on which the Japanese ‘kicked the tin’. | |
| Newcastle Sun 8 Dec. 1/6: Dame Enid Lyons ‘kicked the tin’ when she asked a question [...] about the ‘National’ game of football Australian Rules! Even Mr. Chifley was shocked. |
3. to make a financial contribution, esp. to buying a round of drinks.
| Goulburn Eve. Post (NSW) 15 Oct. 3/3: Circles [...] put the books in great heart when he ran circles around his three short-price rivals, and thus kicked the tin in the pipe opener for the odds merchants. | |
| Cumberland Argus (Paramatta, NSW) 4 July 14/5: Everyone will have a chance of kicking the tin to the tune of £1 and multiples, probably up to £100, providing funds for tiles. | |
| Aussie Eng. 53: ‘Kick the tin’ [...] when it’s your turn to buy a round of drinks . | |
| Sun. Tel. (Sydney) 30 May 34/2: When A.L.P. president Bob Hawke was appealing for money to help pay the Federal election campaign debt of $300,000, the N.S.W. Labor Party was claiming it could not afford to ‘kick the tin.’ [GAW4]. | |
| Dinkum Aussie Dict. 32: Kick the tin: To donate to a worthy cause especially to the widow of someone who has just kicked the bucket. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. used fig. to denote one who is more show than action.
| Mirror of Life 14 Dec. 14/4: Sullivan and Corbett both have appeared before the public as champions who won their titles in the ring. Maher will appear before the public, and wouldn’t it be capital for his enemies to say: ‘Why, he is a tin soldier champion; he never won a championship fight’. |
2. (Aus.) a man who women consider more a companion/friend than a lover.
| Sport (Adelaide) 2 Oct. 5/1: Naish C is a fine tin soldier, but J S is the only girl he can catch. |
3. in specific use of sense 1, a prostitute’s client, usu. middle- or upper-class, who doesn’t want sex but only to act as a servant or ‘slave’ to the prostitute.
| Signs of Crime 204: Tin soldier [...] A voyeur-type male, usually of middle- or upper-class background, who voluntarily acts as a prostitute’s ‘slave’ or companion for no apparent reward (prostitutes’ slang). | |
| Jack of Jumps (2007) 174: ‘He brings me stuff. He helps me. He’s my tin soldier.’ Which has a much nobler ring to it than ‘prostitute’s runner.’. |
(US) a confidence trickster.
| More Ex-Tank Tales 96: Do I look like a tin-roofer or a smooth-spieler. | |
| The Joy (2015) [ebook] He’s just an auld tin-roofer who robs fifty quid and adds two or three noughts onto the end of it ’cos he wants people to like and admire him. | |
| PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 204: [...] which leads to a focking debate, roysh, with Ciara [...] basically calling me a tin-roofer. |
1. to create a form of discordant ‘music’ by banging on household implements and other noise-makers; orig. aimed at newly married couples.
| [ | | Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane) 13 Oct. 6/4: 20 to 30 boys and young men [...] who had met for the purpose of annoying the happy pair, which they did in the usual manner with tin kettles, etc]. |
| Melbourne Punch 14 July 1/2: The tin-kettle riot which took place [...] a few days ago, on the occasion of a wedding [etc]. | |
| Queensland Times 8 July 4/3: The vulgar and abominable practice of ‘tin-kettling’ newly-married couples [...] was indulged in a few evenings ago [...] immediately after a couple had been united in the bonds of matrimony. | |
| Wgga Wagga Advertiser (NSW) 21 June 4/4: On the day the shooting took place, the defendant’s daughter had got married, and late at night a number of disorderly men and boys surrounded Murphy's house, and began the process called ‘tin-kettling’. | |
| Ovens & Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic.) 24 Jan. 1/1: Suddenly from the distant township arose a hideous discord of tin cans, bells, cow horns &c., ‘vexing the dull ear of the drowsy night.’ It was what is familiarly known as a ‘tin-kettling’. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 17 July 4/4: The local lads were out tin-kettling on Monday night [...] quite a happy crew . |
2. to assault, both verbally and physically, thus usu. verbal n. tin-kettling, tin-kettler.
| Kiama Indep. (NSW) 27 Nov. 2/5: Permit me through the columns of your paper, to publicly deny being present at the late tin-kettling at Mount Terry. | |
| Illawarra Mercury (NSW) 2 Jan. 3/1: A newly married woman in Victoria recently died from the effects of a shock to her system, occasioned by a stone being thrown by tin-kettlers . | |
| Western Champion (Barcaldine, Qld) 21 Feb. 2/4: Our late Police Magistrate [...] was obliged to check the practical jokes of these hobbledehoys [...] and effectually put a stop to the objectionable practice of tin-kettling, sign-board defacing, and other vagaries. | |
| Coburg Leader (Vic.) 8 Dec. 2/5: Who were the newly married couple, and who was the Parson who hopped over the back fence [...] to avoid the tin kettling? | |
| Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 19 July 2/7: The tin-kettlers were disturbed. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Dec. 4/7: They are going to tin-kettle a Chow [...] for wanting to marry a half-caste gin. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 21 July 4/7: He got a rough vocal tin-kettling / As he fled from that fluent-tongued flock. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 21 Aug. 2/3: CB has gone mad over the war and says he is going if he has to walk. Take a pull, Cecil, and wait till the tin kettling’s over. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 2 Oct. 5/5: There will soon be another gathering for tin kettlers. |
In phrases
(US) phr. emphasizing the importance of something under discussion, usu. a sum of money.
| Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 29 Sept. 4/6: ‘A million bucks [...] Boy, that sure ain’t tin’. | |
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 16 May 20/1: The opus [...] makes upwards to five grand a week profit [...] And brother that ain’t tin. |
a horn, esp. in hunting or coaching.
| Volunteer Service Gas. 20 Oct. 17/3: ‘A yard of tin,’ [...] would perhaps be a more appropriate instrument for such a corps than a vulgar bugle. | |
| Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News (London) 17 June 6/3: Blackburn, the guard, who was formerly a trumpeter in a line regiment, and is one of the best performers on the yard of tin we have heard. | |
| Western Mail 7 May 3/6: Mr Williams had asked the electors why they should elect him (Captain Otway) because he ‘blew a yard of tin.’ [...] If he [...] did blow a yard of tin he yielded to Mr. Williams in blowing his own trumpet. | |
| Little Auntie in Newcastle Chon. 17 Oct. 14/1: [F]ather gathered the reins into his doeskin palm, and the coach moved off [...] and the ‘yard of tin’ rang out [...] in a triumphant blast. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 3 May 4/2: Though the coachmen of old are dead. / Though the guards are turned to clay, / You will still remember the yard of tin / And the mail of the olden day. | |
| (con. late 19C) Folkestone Herald 27 Aug. 7/2: If I was acting [...] as guard. 1 should not have the heart to take out my ‘yard of tin’ and play ‘Tantivy,’ or the ‘Post Horn Gallop’. | |
| (con. 1835–40) Bold Bendigo 87: The sportsman with the yard of tin pushed it through the flap of the booth and blared back a reply. | |
| Folkestone Herald 7 Jan. 13/3: He said the people in the village kept the time of day by the sound of his ‘yard of tin’. |