tin

(tĭn)

1. Symbol Sn A crystalline, silvery metallic element obtained chiefly from cassiterite, and having two notable allotropic forms. Malleable white tin is the useful allotrope, but at temperatures below 13.2°C it slowly converts to the brittle gray allotrope. Tin is used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion and is a part of numerous alloys, such as soft solder, pewter, type metal, and bronze. Atomic number 50; atomic weight 118.71; melting point 231.93°C; boiling point 2,602°C; specific gravity (gray) 5.77, (white) 7.29; valence 2, 4. See Periodic Table.

2. Tin plate.

3. A container or box made of tin plate.

4. Chiefly British

a. A container for preserved foodstuffs; a can.

b. The contents of such a container.

tr.v. tinned, tin·ning, tins

1. To plate or coat with tin.

2. Chiefly British To preserve or pack in tins; can.

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or made of tin.

a. Constructed of inferior material.

b. Spurious.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

Word History: The origins of the word tin may date to a time before Western Europe was settled by speakers of Germanic, Celtic, and other branches of the Indo-European language family. Related words for this metal are found in almost all Germanic languages, such as German Zinn, Swedish tenn, and Old English tin (the source of the Modern English word). Together, these Germanic words suggest the reconstruction of a Proto-Germanic word *tinam, "tin," but no other branch of Indo-European language family has a word exactly comparable to this. Latin has a vaguely similar-sounding word for tin, stagnum (also spelled stannum), that may have been borrowed from a Celtic source. These facts suggest that the Germanic word for tin may originate in a pre-Indo-European language of Western Europe. This possibility is supported by the Bronze Age importation to the Near East of tin and copper from Western Europe. There are relatively few rich deposits of tin in the earth's crust, and production of bronze in the ancient world was limited by the availability of tin. During the Bronze Age, the civilizations of the Near East and the Mediterranean area depended on relatively few sources to provide the tin needed to make bronze. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century bc, explains that much ancient tin came from deposits in Cornwall in Britain. From there, it was shipped through Gaul to supply the rest of the Mediterranean world. At the time when the early Indo-European peoples began to move westward from their homelands in Eastern Europe—sometime after 4000 bc—they had probably just mastered early techniques of bronze production, in which arsenic rather than tin is alloyed with copper. Tin, however, makes a much superior kind of bronze, and the early Indo-European peoples may have borrowed words for tin from local peoples who were already trading in tin ingots or working the tin deposits of Western Europe.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tinned

(tɪnd)

adj

1. (Metallurgy) plated, coated, or treated with tin

2. (Cookery) chiefly Brit preserved or stored in airtight tins: tinned soup.

3. (Metallurgy) coated with a layer of solder

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

tinned - sealed in a can or jar

canned

preserved - prevented from decaying or spoiling and prepared for future use

Translations

مُعَلَّب

konzervovanýv konzervě

dåse-

eingedost konserviert

κονσερβαρισμένος

enlatado

säilyke-

en boîte

konzerviran

niîursoîinn

in scatola stagnato

缶詰にした

통조림한

konzerviran

konserverad

ที่บรรจุกระป๋อง

konserve kutulanmış konserve

đóng hộp

罐装的

tinned

[tɪnd] ADJ (Brit) → en or de lata, enlatado
tinned peaches → melocotones mpl en lata or en conserva

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

tinned

[ˈtɪnd] adj (British) [food] → en boîte, en conserve
tinned peaches → des pêches en boîte

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

tinned

adj (esp Brit) peas, fruit etc → aus der Dose; tinned food → Dosennahrung f; tinned meat → Dosen- or Büchsenfleisch nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

tinned

[tɪnd] adj (Brit) (food) → in scatola

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

tin

(tin) noun

1. an element, a silvery white metal. Is that box made of tin or steel?

2. (also can) a container, usually for food, made of ˈtin-plate, thin sheets of iron covered with tin or other metal. a tin of fruit; a biscuit-tin.

adjective

made of tin or tin-plate. a tin plate

tinned adjective

(of food) sealed in a tin for preservation etc. tinned foods.

ˈtinfoil noun

tin or other metal in the form of very thin sheets, used for wrapping etc. I'm going to bake the ham in tinfoil.

ˈtin-opener noun

(American ˈcan-opener) any of several types of tool or device for opening tins of food.

tinned

→ مُعَلَّب konzervovaný dåse- konserviert κονσερβαρισμένος enlatado säilyke- en boîte konzerviran in scatola 缶詰にした 통조림한 ingeblikt hermetisert konserwowy enlatado консервированный konserverad ที่บรรจุกระป๋อง kutulanmış konserve đóng hộp 罐装的

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

I am two thirds of the way into the store before I put my first item - tinned tomatoes - in the trolley.

TINNER IS SERVED; CAN YOU COOK JUST FROM STORE CUPBOARD STAPLES?Our writer and her family put chef's latest food bank recipe book to the test

?Boxed cereal, tinned soup,tinned tomatoes, pasta sauce, dried rice/ noodles, tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned fish, tinned potatoes, tinned vegetables, tinned rice/custard, tea bags, coffee (small), long-life juice (one litre), UHT milk, jam, peanut butter, other spreads, biscuits, chocolate, sweets and crisps.

Do a Saintly deed for foodbank

It covers a period from the late Victorian 1880s through to the 1950s - the golden era of tinned packaging - and was put together over some 35 years by an enthusiast with a fascination for the clever ways not just biscuits, but sweets and groceries were marketed and sold.

Thinking outside the BOXES; Who knew that a craving for a sweet treat could bring such colourful excitement to the saleroom?

It covers a period from the late Victorian 1880s through to the 1950s - the golden era of tinned packaging - and was put together over a period of 35 years by an enthusiast with a fascination for the ingenious ways not just biscuits, but sweets and groceries were marketed and sold.

Thinking outside the BOXES; Who knew that a craving for a sweet treat could bring such colourful excitement to the saleroom?

August 13, 1915 Stories from the ECHO during the war years WE LIVE, it seems, in an age of tinned provisions, "canning" de luxe having been obtained through the exigencies of trench warfare.

War Diary

1940s parcel: 10s (50p) A quarter pound of tea, tin of cocoa powder, bar of chocolate, tinned pud, tinned meat roll, tin of processed cheese, tin of condensed milk, dried eggs, tinned sardines or herring, jam, margarine, sugar, tinned veg, biscuits, soap, 50 cigarettes or tobacco 2013 parcel: PS10.80 An orange or apple, a banana, two carrots, two onions, two potatoes, tin of baked beans, tinned tomatoes, tinned peas/ kidney beans, pasta, rice, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, 20 tea bags, a carton of apple or orange juice, and a carton of long-life milk

From cigs to fruit and pasta

Some of the tins were made for the 1929 North East Coast Exhibition in Newcastle, which attracted more than four million visitors in search of tinned sweets, tea and biscuits as souvenirs.

Where there's tin, there's brass; Sale brings back happy memories

TINNED food is on the way out after nearly 200 years.

TINS CANNED; EXCLUSIVE Big stores to scrap them and use cartons instead