adjective
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of, relating to, or resembling tin
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cheap, badly made, or shoddy
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(of a sound) high, thin, and metallic
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(of food or drink) flavoured with metal, as from a container
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informal lucky
noun
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slang a can of beer
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Also: tinnie. informal a small fishing or pleasure boat with an aluminium hull
Other Word Forms
- tinnily adverb
- tinniness noun
Etymology
Origin of tinny
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.
Nearly all televisions have small, tinny speakers that make it difficult to hear dialogue, especially for some of us older folk.
From Barron's
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” was her tinny response, and that gaffe is entirely on the former vice president.
From Los Angeles Times
Then he makes this film that looks tinny, like bad TV.
From Salon
Beeping horns from the busy street outside — some of them coming from sleek black Uber vehicles emblazoned with the Berlinale logo — blended with the street scenes from “Taxi Driver” playing on the tinny television speakers.
From New York Times
This is most evident on the sleepy “Crusader,” an ostensible rebuttal to recent moral panic that lacks — in large part because of its tinny percussion — urgency and bite.
From New York Times
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.
