tin can
7
1.0
- noun
- /tɪn kæn/
:
lata
- After a long hike, we opened a tin can of beans for dinner.
- shooting at tin cans
- tin cans and bottles
- Fill a tin can
We pulled the tin can from underneath the rock.
- We pulled the tin can from underneath the rock.
- And you can do it on a Coca-Cola bottle on, on, on tin cans and pretty much anything that's non porous.
- It's just, it's just basically tin cans and string at the end of the day.
- Yeah, tree, lovely place was only there for a night to had a cowboy pool, which is just a fucking pool in a tin can in the back garden.
- So cheap, so thin, so tiny, like it's literally like a tin can. It does not snap into place. You have to manually
Examples
-
It comes in a little tin can with a pump on it.
-
We'll see what we can find to put in the old tin can.
Fiction book (1993) -
You just go get a tin can.
-
Look in the tin can.
-
We pulled the tin can from underneath the rock.
-
Now where in this tin can can I get some snacks?
-
A row of tin cans is set up on a rusty old car.
Fiction book (1993) -
Every member should be sent boxes of empty tin cans to their homes and offices.
Blog text (17) -
Ready to recycle some tin cans?
-
Why do we ship anchovies halfway around the world to be packaged in tin cans?
Synonyms
491
1.0
A sealed metal container for food or drink
113
1.0
A metal container for keeping food or small things
46
2.0
A metal container for keeping dry food like tea or flour
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning of 'tin can' is directly compositional: a 'can' (metal container) made of or associated with 'tin' (the metal), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a metal container. This literal, product-based combination is cross-linguistically common and follows regular noun + noun compounding, making it immediately understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
Tin can comes from early food containers that were made from thin tin metal and sealed to keep food fresh. That's why the phrase now means 'a small, airtight metal container'.