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tin-pot

[tin-pot]
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adjective
  1. inferior; paltry; shoddy.
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Origin of tin-pot

First recorded in 1765–75; from the believed inferior quality of a tin pot
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tinpot

Historical Examples

  • When they came at last, in their tinpot hats, they got out half a dozen big squirts and rushed into the building with them.

    A Book of Burlesques

    H. L. Mencken

  • England will blow your trumpery little fleet out of the water and sweep your tinpot army into Siberia for this.

    Great Catherine

    George Bernard Shaw

  • "The tinpot style," said Mr. Britling at last in a voice of extreme bitterness.

  • Nayland is a stuffed shirt of the first stuffing, and a tinpot Hitler to boot, but he is fanatically and incorruptibly patriotic.

    The Mercenaries

    Henry Beam Piper

British Dictionary definitions for tinpot

tinpot

adjective (prenominal) British informal
  1. inferior, cheap, or worthless
  2. paltry; unimportant
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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