tin man
- noun
- Archaic
:
hojalatero
- The tin man expertly repaired my old tin roof, making it as good as new.
Examples
-
The tin man at the fair fixed my broken toy and had it shining like it was brand new.
-
As a skilled tin man, he crafted beautiful metal pots and pans for the local market.
-
It'll be up later this week with a guy called George who runs the tin men on Instagram.
Synonyms
6
7.3
A person who fixes small metal things by hand, often while traveling
2
3.5
A person who makes things from metal, often by hammering or welding
1
8.2
A person who makes and fixes household items like pots and lanterns from thin metal
1
9.9
A person who travels to fix metal pots and pans
1
4.2
A person who makes or repairs metal items by shaping and joining them
A person who makes and fixes small metal household items like pots and lamps
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'tin' names the material and 'man' denotes a (figurine or playing) figure, so 'tin man' straightforwardly means a man-shaped object made of tin. This material+object compounding is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Tin man once meant a worker who made or repaired objects from tin, like pots and cans; imagine a craftsman hammering thin metal, so the name simply means a 'tinsmith'.