Forms: see prec. [f. prec. sb. Cf. Du., LG. -tinnen, Ger. -zinnen.]
1. trans. To cover with a thin deposit of tin; to coat or plate with tin.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxxvii. (Tollem. MS.). Brasen vessel ben sone reed and rousti … and haue an yuel sauoure and smel, but þey be tynned.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 494/1. Tynnyn wythe tynne, stanno.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 54/1. Take a copper basen which is not tinned.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 517. A deuise to tin pots, pans, and other pieces of brasse … with white lead or tinglasse.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, v. 68. Take great Care the Pots or Sauce-pans … be well tinned, for fear of giving the Broths or Soops any brassy Taste.
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min., 525. Tin-plate … consists of iron, whose surface is tinned to prevent oxidation.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xix. (ed. 3), 182. The man who pickles and tins the pins.
2. In soldering iron, brass, etc., To perform the preliminary process of heating the surfaces and covering them with a thin coating of the solder.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. (1888), 366/1. First clean the iron and brass well and then tin them before placing them together for soldering…. The articles can be tinned by rubbing while hot with rosin; then rubbing them over with solder.
3. To put up or seal (provisions) in a tin for preservation; to can. (In quot. 1887 intr. for pass.)
1887. Cassell’s Mag., Feb., 148. Some fish ‘tin’ well, others do not.
1890. Daily News, 16 April, 6/2. The method of tinning milk for use of troops.
