tin can
noun1
A container, usually cylindrical, made out of sheet metal coated with tin, or (by extension) aluminum.
- As the tin can sailors started telling us what they thought of AKA sailors, which they said were inferior seamen habing to serve aboard an auxiliary vessel instead of a ship of the line;2000, Donald F. Myers, Your War, My War: A Marine in Vietnam, →ISBN, page 305:
3
Slang An inexpensive car.
- They're driving the same tin can they've had since Emma and I were in kindergarten.2010, Heather Vogel Frederick, The Mother-Daughter Book Club, →ISBN, page 21:
- We got a shockingly low price for it and bought a small tin-can run-around.2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 134:
4
Slang A motor home or trailer.
- I was too late as bearing down the ribbon of no return was a huge tin can piloted by two women with hair blowing over the side windows.2007, Errol L. Sweetser, Quest for the Ridge: A Childhood Adventure, →ISBN, page 34:
5
Literature, Media, Publishing, Science fiction Slang A metal spaceship or space station.
- For here am I sitting in a tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do1969, David Bowie, “Space Oddity”:
6
Derogatory, Informal, Sometimes A nickname for a robot or artificial intelligence.
- Do as you’re told, tin can!
- Derived terms
- tin can telephone
- Related terms
- tinfoil, aluminum can
- Hypernyms
- can