"tinhorn" meaning in English

See tinhorn in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more tinhorn [comparative], most tinhorn [superlative], tin-horn [alternative]
Etymology: From tin + horn, from gambling. Etymology templates: {{affix|en|tin|horn}} tin + horn Head templates: {{en-adj}} tinhorn (comparative more tinhorn, superlative most tinhorn)
  1. (US) Cheap, inferior; pretentious. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-tinhorn-en-adj-tu20yBkg Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 55 45 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 59 41 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 61 39

Noun

Forms: tinhorns [plural], tin-horn [alternative]
Etymology: From tin + horn, from gambling. Etymology templates: {{affix|en|tin|horn}} tin + horn Head templates: {{en-noun}} tinhorn (plural tinhorns)
  1. (US) A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-tinhorn-en-noun-hdb584nG Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 55 45

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tin",
        "3": "horn"
      },
      "expansion": "tin + horn",
      "name": "affix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From tin + horn, from gambling.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more tinhorn",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most tinhorn",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tin-horn",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "tinhorn (comparative more tinhorn, superlative most tinhorn)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
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          "_dis": "55 45",
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          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "59 41",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "61 39",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Cheap, inferior; pretentious."
      ],
      "id": "en-tinhorn-en-adj-tu20yBkg",
      "links": [
        [
          "Cheap",
          "cheap"
        ],
        [
          "inferior",
          "inferior"
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        [
          "pretentious",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Cheap, inferior; pretentious."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tinhorn"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tin",
        "3": "horn"
      },
      "expansion": "tin + horn",
      "name": "affix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From tin + horn, from gambling.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tinhorns",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tin-horn",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "tinhorn (plural tinhorns)",
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:",
          "text": "“[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 12, Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser, Lee Oaks, “Escape from Terra”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):",
          "text": "I'm to deliver this treaty, signed by Secretary General Tanduk Timah himself. Heh. 'Tanduk Timah' in Bahasa Malay means 'Tin Horn.' How apt.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes."
      ],
      "id": "en-tinhorn-en-noun-hdb584nG",
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          "contemptible",
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          "gamble",
          "gamble"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
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}
{
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    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From tin + horn, from gambling.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more tinhorn",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most tinhorn",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
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      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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    }
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        "Cheap, inferior; pretentious."
      ],
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        ],
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        ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Cheap, inferior; pretentious."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
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}

{
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    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
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    }
  ],
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tinhorns",
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        "plural"
      ]
    },
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      "tags": [
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:",
          "text": "“[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 12, Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser, Lee Oaks, “Escape from Terra”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):",
          "text": "I'm to deliver this treaty, signed by Secretary General Tanduk Timah himself. Heh. 'Tanduk Timah' in Bahasa Malay means 'Tin Horn.' How apt.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes."
      ],
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          "contemptible",
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          "gamble",
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        "(US) A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tinhorn"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tinhorn meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.