Forms: 1–3 tin, 3–7 tyn, 4–6 tynne, 5 tyne, 5–7 tynn, (6 teene. Sc. twne, tun), 6–7 tinne, 7 tinn, 7– tin. [OE. tin neut. = MLG., MDu. tin(n, tān (LG., Fris., Du. tin), OHG., MHG. zin (G. zinn), ON. tin (Da. tin, Sw. tenn):—OTeut. *tin-om; not known outside Teutonic. Ir. tinne is from Eng.
The 16th-c. Sc. forms twne, tun are difficult to account for.]
1. One of the well-known metals, nearly approaching silver in whiteness and luster, highly malleable and taking a high polish; used in the manufacture of articles of block tin, in the formation of alloys, as bronze, pewter, etc., and, on account of its resistance to oxidation, for making tin-plate and lining culinary and other iron vessels.
Tin is rarely if ever found native, but occurs in two ores, the dioxide, SnO2, called tin-stone or cassiterite, and, less commonly, in tin-pyrites or sulphide of tin, SnS2. Chemically it is a dyad metallic element, symbol Sn (stannum), atomic weight (O = 16) 119 (Internat. Committee, in Jrnl. Chem. Soc., Sept., 1912, 1832); sp. gr. about 7.3. In Alchemy represented by the same sign (♃) as the planet Jupiter.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxvii. 266. Ðis Israhela folc is ʓeworden nu me to sindrum & to are & to tine & to iserne & to leade inne on minum ofne.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 163. Ðe caliz [in church is] of tin and hire [the priest’s concubine’s] nap of mazere and ring of golde.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 144. Metal, as led and tyn.
1382. Wyclif, Num. xxxi. 22. Brasse, and yren, and tynne.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 613/20. Stannum, tyn. Ibid., 653/14. Hoc stagnum, tyne.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1560), C iv. Kepe them in a boxe of tinne.
1548. Aberdeen Regr. (1844), I. 259,. vij platis of twne,… item, iij quartis of twne. Ibid. (1561), 336. Ane charger of tun, ane plait of tun, ane dische of tun.
1559. Will R. Hoope (Somerset Ho.). Beades of Teene.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 184. Rich and plenteous mines of tinne.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 195. The colour of Tin is greyish white…. Fracture hackly, crackles … when bent.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 388. Equal parts of tin and bismuth form a brittle alloy.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, ii. 10. Bronze is an alloy of about nine parts of copper and one of tin.
b. With defining attribute, as
bar-tin = block tin; black tin, tin ore (the dioxide, SnO2) prepared for smelting; block tin, metallic tin refined and cast into blocks; grain tin, a very pure tin obtained by fusing stream tin in a blast furnace supplied with charcoal, and breaking it into small pieces; phosphor tin, an artificial compound of tin and phosphorus; stream tin, tin ore washed from the sand or gravel in which it occurs; white tin, refined metallic tin.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 361. Stream ores produce the grain tin,… and the others the *bar or block tin.
1873. Watts, Fownes’ Chem., 443. Two varieties of commercial tin are known, called grain- and bar-tin.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 185. *Black tin … is tinne ore broken and washed.
1865. E. Burritt, Walk Land’s End, 320. The mine produces about 430 tons of black tin annually.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 295. Mundick, and *Block Tin.
1688. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 455. There is a new patent passing empow’ring commissioners for the making of new tinn farthings of block tinn.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 472/2. After refining, the tin is cast into blocks of about three cwt. each…. Tin thus prepared is sold as block tin.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 201. *Grain Tin approaches to the silvery white. Common block Tin is bluer.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2575/1. Grain-tin is prepared by plunging blocks of tin into a bath of molten tin, and when they have assumed a brittle crystaling texture, they are broken with a hammer; or, after being heated nearly to the fusing-point, they are allowed to fall from a considerable hight; they are thus broken up into elongated grains. Ibid. (1884), Suppl., *Phosphor Tin.… Useful in making phosphor bronze.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 201. In Cornwall the best Tin Ores are those that are washed down the hills by torrents, and thence called *Stream Tin Ores.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc., s.v. Tin, Stream tin,… from it the purest metal is obtained.
1674. Ray, Words, Prepar. Tin, 124. Two pound of black tin … yields a pound of *White or more.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4241/2. A new Invention of Smelting … or Black Tin-Ore into White Tin.
2. A vessel made of tin, or more usually of tinned iron; spec. a vessel in which meat, fish, fruit, etc., is hermetically sealed for preservation (= CAN sb.1 3); locally, a small cylindrical drinking vessel or mug with a handle.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 73. With shining tin to keep his dinner warm Swung at his back.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 354. The sellers of tins, who carry them under their arms, or in any way on a round,… are known as hand sellers.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 258. Now we had to quarry out the blocks [of ice] … and then melt it in tins for our daily drink.
1898. British Printer, XI. 218. A couple of opened ink tins.
1900. H. G. Graham, Soc. Life Scot. in 18th C., IV. ii. (1901), 135. They partook of a tin of ale.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 29 Nov., 8/2. An action … that concerns 200,000 tins of strawberry jam for the troops in South Africa. The manufacturers are proceeding against the tin-makers, as the tins leaked.
Mod. To open a tin of sardines. (Scotl.) Each child brought a tin and received her tinful of milk.
b. Tin-plate as the material of such vessels.
1879. Mrs. A. E. James, Ind. Househ. Managem., 85. A tin writing case is much more useful … for in tin nothing will mildew as it is liable to do in leather.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. 283. Meat of their own herds, untainted by American tin.
3. slang. Money, cash. Cf. BRASS sb. 3 b.
Said to have been first applied to the small silver coins of the 18th c., which before their recall in 1817 were often worn quite smooth without trace of any device, so as to resemble pieces of tin. See quot. for tin-like in 4 c.
1836. W. H. Smith, The Individual, The Thieves’ Chaunt, 5 (Farmer). But because she lately nimm’d some tin, They have sent her to lodge at the King’s Head Inn.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, ii. How much better would it be … to hand over a reasonable amount of tin.
1854. Marion Harland, Alone, xxiv. She married a rich old man for his ‘tin.’
4. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. or as adj. Made or consisting of tin (or of tin-plate), as tin bar, basin, box, bucket, button, can, farthing, filings, flagon, metal, -nail, saucepan, -solder, spoon, thread, -ware, whistle; of, pertaining or relating to, producing, or concerned with tin, as tin-amalgam, -dip, -farm, -float (FLOAT sb. 19), -furnace, -grain, -kiln, -law, -lode, -merchant, -mine, ore, -pit, -shop, trade, vein; put up or preserved in tins, tinned, as tin junk, milk.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 593. The glass … with its interior coating of *tin-amalgam.
1487. Cely Papers (Camden), 157. A *tyn basson wt oder geyr.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tin-box, Tin-case, a strong iron box tinned and japanned, for holding papers, dress articles, etc.
1642. in J. Lister, Autobiog. (1842), 78. Michael Woodhead was shot upon his *tin-buttons.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tin-can, a metal vessel for holding liquids.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Tin Can, the ordinary name for the cans of tinned iron now so widely used.
1775. Ash, *Tin-canister, a canister made of tin.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1253 (Tin-plate). The final *tin-dip is useful to remove the marks of the brush.
1758. Borlase, Cornwall, 190. The *tin-farm of Cornwall at this time amounted to … one hundred marks per annum.
1688. *Tinn farthings [see block tin in sense 1 b].
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 288. The anthelmintic virtues of *tin-filings.
1589. Exch. Rolls Scotl., XXII. 73. Aucht *tin flauconis contenand ane point the pece.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. II. ii. 328. A Slag, remaining in the bottom of the *Tin-Floate.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, IV. (1723), 213. *Tin-Grains, and other Ores of Metalls.
1710. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., II. *Tin-kiln, is used for the Burning of the Mundick from the Tin-ore.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., xi. (1614), 21/1. This Earle made certain *tinne-laws which with liberties and priviledges were confirmed by Earle Edmund his sonne.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., x. 301. Wheal Friendship lode differs but a few degrees from east and west, as is also the case with Wheal Jewel *tin-lode on the north of it.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4461/4. Richard Balhatchett,… Tinner, or *Tinn-Merchant.
1882. [Lees & Clutterbuck], Three in Norway, v. 35. When we have only *tin milk.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 185. The incursions of the Mores had stopped up the *tinne mines of Spaine.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1241. The tin-mines of the Malay peninsula.
1381–2. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 389. In CCC *Tinnail et vernys empt. pro ostio parliamenti in claustro.
1610. *Tinne ore [see black tin in 1 b].
1766. Wesley, Jrnl., 12 Sept. My horse was just stepping into a *tin-pit.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 181/2. I have known a blacksmith … unaware of the fact that what are called *‘tin saucepans’ are made of tinned plate iron.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 189. Like as *tin-soder doth knit and rejoyne a crackt peece or brasse.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., Penalties & Forfeit., 2. *Tin and Leaden Spoons.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, 105. Adorned with needle work of *tin-thred upon diverse colour’d cloth.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., xv. 525. The chief emporium of the *tin trade was Bruges.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 185. The *tynne veines in Germanie … were not as yet knowen.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 36. It is this substance which constitutes our famous *tin-ware.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 90. As if he were sounding a charge with … a *tin-whistle.
b. fig. in reference to tin as a base metal, esp. in comparison with silver: Mean, petty, worthless, counterfeit. (Cf. COPPER sb.1 9 c.)
1886. Kipling, Departm. Ditties (1899), 24. The Little Tin Gods harried their little tin souls.
1902. Daily Chron., 10 July, 3/3. Those funny little tin revolutions affected by the South American States.
1905. H. A. Vachell, The Hill, ix. 187. I hope he’s not going to make a sort of tin parson of you?
c. objective and obj. genitive, as tin-beater, -maker, -melter, -miner, -pedler, -stamper, etc.; tin-bearing, -dressing, -getting, -mining, -smelting, -stamping, etc., sbs. and adjs.; instrumental, as tin-poisoning, -roofing; tin-lined, -mailed, -roofed adjs.; parasynthetic, as tin-bottomed, -ceilinged, -colored, -handled, -tabled adj.; similative, as tin-white adj. and sb.; also tin-like adj. and adv.
1899. Daily News, 30 Nov., 2/1 (Prospectus). Two immense deposits of *tin-bearing drift.
1848. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 272. François Foucret, *tin-beater,… living in Vaise.
1872. Calverley, Fly-leaves (1903), 73. Hit a *tinbottom’d tray Hard with the fireshovel, hammer away!
c. 1515. Cocke Lorelles B., 10. Balancers, *tynne casters, and skryueners.
1934. Rian James, Dining in New York (ed. 4), 46. The service is swifter and much more polite, in this *tin-ceilinged dress-shop restaurant [S. Klein’s] on Union Square, than in some of the gaudiest dining salons on Park Avenue.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Magnificence, 926. On his back he wears *Tin-colour’d Tissue.
1896. Daily News, 17 Nov., 3/5. He was given a *tin-handled knife.
1846. Mrs. Gore, Eng. Char., 6. Many persons … remember the villanous old coinage of George III. [properly Queen Anne to Geo. II., still current under Geo. III., but gradually withdrawn after 1817], the *tin-like sixpences, which added a word to the slang dictionary, and the button-like shillings, of which the image and superscription might have been Cæsar’s.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 192. Heated by circulated air … ascending in *tin-lined flues.
1879. Mrs. A. E. James, Ind. Househ. Managem., 21. Articles … should be securely packed in tin boxes, or else in boxes tin-lined.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 401. The delicately *tin-mailed and glittering spires of the village church.
1592. Chettle, Kinde-harts Dr. (1841), 26. The receipte which the *tinne-melters wife ministred.
1899. R. Munro, Prehist. Scotland, i. 6. Diodorus Siculus makes mention of the *tin-miners.
1841. Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. iv. (1876), 112. He hears and feels what you say of the seraphim, and of the *tin-pedler.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 20 Sept., 3/2. These could not have saved him from *tin-poisoning or a touch of ophthalmia.
c. 1886. Kipling, Railway Folk, 59. Walk into a huge, brick built, *tin-roofed stable.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1253. Paid for brushing and *tin-washing 225 plates.
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 252. The colour of this metal [tellurium] is *tin-white, verging to lead-grey.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 39. Good specimens of tin-white cobalt.
5. Special Combs.: tin-bath (BATH sb.1 18), the mass of melted tin in a tin-furnace; tin bill: see quot.; † tin-blain, a blain or inflammatory swelling of the tongue in horses; † tin-boat, a pontoon or the like made of tin (or some alloy of tin): cf. PONTOON sb. 1, quots. 1710 and 1811; tin-bound sb. = BOUND sb.1 3 c; hence tin-bound v. trans., to mark out the boundaries of (a piece of ground) for tin-mining; whence tin-bounder, -bounding; tin-clad a., covered with tin; sb. [after iron-clad], a lightly armored boat; tin-field, a tract of country yielding tin; tin-floor, (a) a floor made of tin; (b) a horizontal course or stratum of tin ore: see FLOOR sb. 12; tin-frame: see quot.; tin glaze, a glaze for fine pottery, having an oxide of tin as a basis; hence tin-glazed a.; tin-gravel, gravel containing tin ore, which is obtained by streaming; tin-ground = tin-field; tin-hammer, a hammer with a heavy tin head, used to drive home tightly fitting bolts, etc.; tin-house, (a) a house constructed of tin; (b) a building where tin is worked; tin-liquor, a solution of tin in strong acid mixed with common salt, used as a mordant in dyeing; tin-loaf, a loaf baked in a tin, a pan-loaf; tin-mordant, a mordant consisting of a solution of tin in acid, as tin-liquor; tin-mouth, a sun-fish found in the Mississippi, the crappie; tin-opener, an instrument for opening soldered tins; tin pan sb., a pan made of tin, also attrib. in reference to the noise made by beating such; hence tin-pan v. trans., to serenade in derision by beating tin pans; tin-pulp, the precipitate from a solution of tin chloride and yellow prussiate of potash, used for dyeing; tin-putty, putty-powder; tin-pyrites, a sulphide of tin: see PYRITES; tin-rock, a variety of rock pigeon; tin-salt, the crystalline hydrated chloride of tin, SnCl22H2O, obtained by dissolving tin in hot hydrochloric acid; also, with pl., any salt of tin; tin-saw, ‘a saw used by bricklayers for cutting kerfs in bricks’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); tin-scrap, the waste tin-plate in the manufacture of tin-ware; tin-silver, imitation silver made of tin; tin-spar (see quot. 1796); tin-spirits = tin-liquor; tin-stuff, a miner’s name for tin ore; tin-vat, a vessel in which tin-liquor is kept; tin wash, stream tin (see 1 b); tin-washing = TIN-STREAMING; pl. works where tin-streaming is done; tin-witts: see quots.; tinwoman, a woman who sells tin (cf. TINMAN); tin-work, often pl. -works, a place where tin is worked or manufactured; so tin-worker, -working; tin-worm, the ‘worm’ or spiral tube of a still, made of tin. See also TINFOIL, -GLASS, -KETTLE, -POT, -TACK, etc.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1249 (Tin-Refining). Into the *tin-bath, billets of green wood are plunged.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., V. iv. 291. The manner of agreeing for or buying the Tin Ore … being to give *Tin bills or promissory notes to the owners thereof. Ibid., 292. This makes what they call the Tin bill trade so noted in this county.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. vi. (1668), 74. For the Blain on the tongue, of some called the *Tin-blain, it is a blister which groweth at the roots of the tongue.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1199/3. Some of the biggest Cannon out of the Magazine at Delft, and the *Tin Boats from the Hague.
1692. Siege Lymerick, 4. This day there came into our Camp Twenty Nine Tin-Boats.
1865. Standard, 11 July. The Beam mine had been worked by *tin bounders under the custom of Cornwall. Ibid. Up to 1858 the mine had been worked under the custom of *tin bounding.
1883. Pollock, Land Laws, ii. (1887), 50. In Cornwall … called ‘tin-bounding,’ from the setting out of the working by bounds which is the adventurer’s first step towards establishing his claim.
1873. Howells, Chance Acquaintance, ii. The slender *tin-clad spire of its church.
1887. Sci. Amer., 23 April, 263/3. He converted … seven transports into what were called ‘tinclads,’ or musket-proof gunboats.
1898. Daily News, 26 April, 9/4. The tin wash and tailings of the leading tin sluicing mines of the Ringarooma *Tinfield.
1907. Daily Chron., 28 Sept., 5/4. Prospectors in the Government tin-fields at Waterberg.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 185. On this *Tin-floor or Bed may the Hops be turned … with less expence of Fuel.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 124. The stanniferous small veins… interposed between certain rocks,… are commonly called tin-floors.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Tin-frame, Corn[wall], a sleeping-table used in dressing tin-ore slimes, and discharged by turning it upon an axis … and then dashing water over it.
1868. J. Marryat, Pottery & Porcelain (ed. 3), xiii. 436. The mark (M. 251) is a hunting-horn, generally in red on the *tin glazed porcelain, and blue on the lead.
1904. Daily Chron., 7 July, 8/4. The tin-glazed ware of Delft, and the salt-glazed stoneware of Germany.
1874. J. H. Collins, Metal Mining, 55. The deposit of *tin gravel at the mouth of the Carnon Valley.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., xiii. 401. To fill up the space once occupied by the *tin-ground.
1798. Helen M. Williams, Tour in Switzerland, I. x. 133. This admirable mimick-creation of silver torrents, mossy forests, *tin-houses and glass lakes.
1904. Daily News, 19 Nov., 12. The mills and tin house were stopped for nearly an hour.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tin-liquor. Ibid., s.v. Loaf, The cottage loaf; *tin loaves.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1252. *Tin mordants, for dyeing scarlet.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 71. Pomoxys annularis … has other names of local application as *‘Tin Mouth,’ ‘Bridge Perch.’
1895. Daily News, 21 June, 3/4. Duggan and Farrell struck at her with a *tin opener.
1854. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Poet. & Imag., Wks. (Bohn), III. 169. What we once admired as poetry has … come to be a sound or *tin pans.
1885. Daily News, 8 Jan., 6/6. The female portion of the community *‘tin-panning’ the rev. gentleman, a great uproar being caused by the beating of old trays, kettles, &c.
1874. W. Crookes, Dyeing & Calico-Print., II. i. 166. The so-called prussiate of tin, or *tin-pulp, is chiefly used as an ingredient in printing steam-blues on cotton.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 801. The last polish is given [to marble] with *tin-putty.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 75. *Tin Pyrites.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1241. There are only two ores of tin; the peroxide, or tin-stone, and tin pyrites.
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 237. The greater portion of the pigeons used for trap shooting are brought over from that port [Antwerp], and sold here as *Tin Rocks.
1849. D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 229. Boiling with phosphorous acid or *tin salt.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. I. v. 307. A Yellow *Tin-Spar from Ireland.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 198. The yellowish grey [tin stone] is often called Tinspar.
1877. O’Neill, in Encycl. Brit., VII. 574/2. The solution of tin used by dyers … commonly called *‘tin spirits.’
1778. W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 67. The Tinners or Miners … give it the name of *Tin-stuff.
1865–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., III. 252. In the *tin-vat, commonly used for calico-printing, the indigo is reduced by a solution of stannous oxide in caustic potash or soda.
1898. *Tin wash [see tin-field above].
1869. A. R. Wallace, Malay Archip., I. 43. Extensive *tin-washings, employing over a thousand Chinese.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 858. *‘Tin witts’: the ore obtained from the stamp-floors.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Tin-witts, Corn[wall], the product of the first dressing of tin-ores, containing, besides tinstone, other heavy minerals (wolfram and metallic sulphides).
1884. M. E. Wilkins, in Harper’s Mag., June, 29/2. Her customers … had grown used to the novelty of a *tin-woman, instead of a tinman.
1475. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 134/2. A *Tyn werk within the said Counte of Cornewaill, called the Myne of the Cleker.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 184. Of these Mines or tinne-workes, there be two kinds.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., xiii. 408. An epoch corresponding with that to which the Cornish stream tin-works belong.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 185. Hee delivered rules and precepts to these *Tinne-workers.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, Pref. 51. Before this *tin working nation dived into the bowels of the earth.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 53. The *tin-worms of stills.
