tinny

[tin-ee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tinny ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, tin·ni·er, tin·ni·est.

of or like tin.

containing tin.

lacking in timbre or resonance; sounding thin or twangy: a tinny piano.

not strong or durable; flimsy; shoddy.

having the taste of tin.

Origin of tinny

First recorded in 1545–55; tin + -y¹

Related formstin·ni·ly, adverbtin·ni·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tinny

golden, silvery, iron, mineral, hard, leaden, fusible, geologic, metallurgic, stannic, tinny

Examples from the Web for tinny

Contemporary Examples of tinny

People listen to it on tinny cellphone speakers that are entirely inferior to what they had in lo-tech times of yore.
Comedy Is His Calling: The Brilliance of Billy Crystal
Tom Shales
April 18, 2014
And when he tried to strike a sympathetic note with “people who are looking for work,” it came off as tinny and flat.
Why Mitt Romney Is Winning, and Rick Perry Is Losing
Andrew Romano
January 3, 2012

Historical Examples of tinny

Against the scene a jazz band flung a whine and a stumble of tinny sounds.
Erik Dorn
Ben Hecht
That's only a tinny sort of glitter just now, but you should see the moon rise over it.
Mushroom Town
Oliver Onions
The words were in English—the tinny, saw-cut English of the native-bred, and the chaplain jumped.
Kim
Rudyard Kipling
A tinny voice said with formal cordiality that he did, indeed.
Operation Terror
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
The tinny voice said hastily that Lockley should speak to the general himself.
Operation Terror
William Fitzgerald Jenkins

British Dictionary definitions for tinny

tinny

adjective -nier or -niest

of, relating to, or resembling tin

cheap, badly made, or shoddy

(of a sound) high, thin, and metallic

(of food or drink) flavoured with metal, as from a container

Australian informal lucky

noun plural -nies

Australian slang a can of beer

Also: tinnie Australian informal a small fishing or pleasure boat with an aluminium hull

Derived Formstinnily, adverbtinniness, noun

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

Word Origin and History for tinny

adj.

1550s, from tin + -y (2). Used figuratively (of sounds, etc.) since 1877.