Etymology
Origin of tin-pot
First recorded in 1835–45; tin ( def. ) (from the believed inferior quality of a tin pot) + pot 1 ( def. )
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.
He’s 80% charisma, 20% peacock, who takes his fashion cues from tin-pot dictators and Elton John.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
Yes, Adolf Hitler was ridiculous and vulgar, a tin-pot demagogue instead of a smooth politician, but he knew how to excite the nationalist base and deliver a whopper of a speech.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2020
Former president Kgalema Motlanthe, who headed a panel of inquiry into the land issue, described traditional leaders as “village tin-pot dictators.”
From Reuters ● Aug. 24, 2018
Our presidents have been a mixed lot, but no true tin-pot Caesars have yet occupied the Oval Office.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2016
No one has ever supped in a forecastle at sea, without having been struck by the prodigious residuum of tea-leaves, or cabbage stalks, in his tin-pot of bohea.
From Redburn. His First Voyage by Melville, Herman
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.
