🎭 Fake or showy 🤥 A pretender 🎲 A small gambler

tinhorn

1 9.9

A small-time gambler who brags but has little skill or money

noun
/ˈtɪnˌhɔrn/

Offensive

: jugador de poca monta

When a tinhorn like that thinks he's big enough to take your place... ... he's gotta feel pretty safe.

Examples

He thought he was a big shot, but everyone knew he was just a tinhorn trying to bluff his way through.
The inexperienced player was often seen as just a tinhorn in the high-stakes poker game.
We don't like tinhorns around here, mister.

Rio Bravo (1959)
I'm a cheap tinhorn.

The Towering Inferno (1974)
Many newcomers to gambling are tinhorns who overestimate their skills at the table.

Synonyms

greenhorn

vstinhorn

Informal

7 7.4

A person who is new to an activity and has little experience

is a small-time gambler rather than merely inexperienced

better

vstinhorn

Archaic

1 6.8

A person who places a bet on a game or race

is small-time and pretends to be more important than they are

Antonyms

professional

401 3.7

A person who has special training and works in a skilled job

expert

3 3.5

Very skilled and knowing a lot about a particular area

How Successful

high roller

25 5.6

gambler

115 3.4

tinhorn

Offensive

1 9.9

novice

46 3.4

Surface Forms

tinhorn singular

tinhorns plural

Morphology

tinhorn = tin + horn (opaque) = tin + horn

The sense 'small-time or inexperienced gambler' is an idiomatic extension of the compound and not directly inferable from the literal meanings of the parts.

Etymology

Tinhorn originally meant a small, unimportant gambler in old saloons, and the pieces tin ('cheap metal') plus horn (a loud instrument or boast) help you picture a flashy but weak player. So a tinhorn today often means a small-time or inexperienced gambler who talks big but has little real skill.