tin can

American

noun

can.
U.S. Navy Slang. a destroyer.

tin can British

noun

a metal food container, esp when empty

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tin can

An Americanism dating back to 1760–70

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.

Residents have responded in kind, posting a picture of a tin can phone to signal their slide back to the pre-digital age.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026

All of which makes the decision to play in the round, packed like sardines in a crushed tin can, all the more significant.

From BBC • Nov. 21, 2025

He was a mostly self-taught golfer who had fashioned a swing using a branch from a guava tree for a club and a crushed tin can for a ball.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2024

Movies to be watched on planes, making bearable the three or nine hours spent in a tin can, squashed on all sides, munching tiny pretzels and trying not to order yet another gin and tonic.

From New York Times • Apr. 18, 2024

These are my main communications with my brother now, these raspy tin can words, sentences without vowels, the Morse of feet.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023