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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of tinny
Explanation
If something is tinny, it sounds weak and a little metallic. Music played on an old-fashioned transistor radio would sound tinny compared to a fancy new stereo. Tinny sounds are vaguely unpleasant, and tinny objects are poorly constructed, of cheap metal. You'll have more fun cooking in a heavy cast iron skillet than a thin, tinny pan. You could say that tinny things either sound like tin being struck with a spoon or appear to be made from tin. And if something tastes tinny, you can detect a metallic flavor in it.
Vocabulary lists containing tinny
Unwind
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Red, White & Royal Blue
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All My Rage
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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.
See Examples For:
It’s the type of song that probably sounds best coming out of the tinny speakers of a 1992 hatchback, and that’s frankly one of the highest compliments you can give to a grupero banger.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Timo Kurkikangas’s sound design could use some tweaks—the spoken text was sometimes tinny or drowned out by the orchestra.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
Nearly all televisions have small, tinny speakers that make it difficult to hear dialogue, especially for some of us older folk.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Then he makes this film that looks tinny, like bad TV.
From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2024
Butler’s voice came back tinny through the speaker.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
His voice is clear and energetic but the recording makes it just a little lighter, a little tinnier.
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2018
Donald’s voice is a little lighter, a little tinnier too, but it is unmistakably Trump.
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2018
Its sound is mercurial, almost like a synthesizer in its mutability: now a liquid stream of notes, silvery and flowing, and now a tinnier rasping beat.
From Washington Post ● May 31, 2015
But “Nixon by Nixon” is also structured as a brief history of the Nixon presidency, and it alternates the darkness of the tapes with the brighter, tinnier tones of newscasts and interviews.
From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2014
A fifth of a second’s hesitation in McAlister’s reply; the tinniest sharp note of surprise or protest in his tone.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2020
"The tinniest little teapot that was ever introduced into political life."
From Time Magazine Archive
I'm not gold, my dear chap, but the tinniest dross that ever was made.
From The Bars of Iron by Dell, Ethel M. (Ethel May)
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.
