tin man
- noun
- Archaic
:
muñeco de hojalata
- As a child, he loved playing with his collection of tin men on rainy afternoons.
Examples
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She found her grandfather's old tin man in a dusty box in the attic.
-
The antique shop displayed a rare tin man from the early twentieth century.
-
Look at that tin man!
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The tin man was a gift from my grandfather.
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As a child, he loved playing with his collection of tin men on rainy afternoons.
-
The antique shop displayed a rare tin man from the early twentieth century.
-
She found her grandfather's old tin man in a dusty box in the attic.
Synonyms
37
5.3
A small model of a person, animal, or mythical character made of clay, metal, plastic
5
1.8
A small model of a soldier that children play with
2
3.4
A small metal toy shaped like a soldier that children play with
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 can also mean a small toy man made of tin, like old tin soldiers children played with, so the phrase names a little metal figure of a man.