TIN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tin

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noun

Tin n.

(Chem.) An elementary substance found as an oxide in the mineral cassiterite, and reduced as a soft silvery-white crystalline metal, with a tinge of yellowish-blue, and a high luster. It is malleable at ordinary temperatures, but brittle when heated. It is softer than gold and can be beaten out into very thin strips called tinfoil. It is ductile at 2120, when it can be drawn out into wire which is not very tenacious; it melts at 4420, and at a higher temperature burns with a brilliant white light. Air and moisture act on tin very slightly. The peculiar properties of tin, especially its malleability, its brilliancy and the slowness with which it rusts make it very serviceable. With other metals it forms valuable alloys, as bronze, gun metal, bell metal, pewter and solder. It is not easily oxidized in the air, and is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting, in the form of tin foil with mercury to form the reflective surface of mirrors, and in solder, bronze, speculum metal, and other alloys. Its compounds are designated as stannous, or stannic. Symbol Sn (Stannum). Atomic weight 117.4.

Thin plates of iron covered with tin; tin plate.

Money. (Cant)

Block tin (Metal.), commercial tin, cast into blocks, and partially refined, but containing small quantities of various impurities, as copper, lead, iron, arsenic, etc.; solid tin as distinguished from tin plate; called also bar tin.

Butter of tin. (Old Chem.) See Fuming liquor of Libavius, under Fuming.

Grain tin. (Metal.) See under Grain.

Salt of tin (Dyeing), stannous chloride, especially so called when used as a mordant.

Stream tin. See under Stream.

Tin cry (Chem.), the peculiar creaking noise made when a bar of tin is bent. It is produced by the grating of the crystal granules on each other.

Tin foil, tin reduced to a thin leaf.

Tin frame (Mining), a kind of buddle used in washing tin ore.

Tin liquor, Tin mordant (Dyeing), stannous chloride, used as a mordant in dyeing and calico printing.

Tin penny, a customary duty in England, formerly paid to tithingmen for liberty to dig in tin mines. (Obs.)

Tin plate, thin sheet iron coated with tin.

Tin pyrites. See Stannite.

verb

Tin v. t. (past & past part. tinned; pres. part. tinning) To cover with tin or tinned iron, or to overlay with tin foil.

See images of 'Tin'

Etymology of 'Tin'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tin" Quotes from Famous Books

... timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, ...

— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... has watched children knows the extraordinary amount of pleasure that they can extract out of the simplest materials. To keep a shop in the corner of a garden, where the commodities are pebbles and thistle-heads stored in old tin pots, and which are paid for in daisies, will be an engrossing occupation to healthy children for a long summer afternoon. There is no reason why that kind of zest should not be imported into later life; and, as a matter of fact, people who practise self-restraint, who are temperate and quiet, ...

— At Large • Arthur Christopher Benson

... like a live girl before," said one of the older girls. "I liked the Brahmin, the Jackal and the Tiger best," exclaimed a boy. "Gee! but couldn't you just see that tiger pace when she was saying the words?" "I just love The Little Tin Soldier," said a small boy who hated to read, but was always begging the children's librarian to tell him stories about the pictures he found in books. "Didn't she make ...

— Library Work with Children • Alice I. Hazeltine

... Vedas is want of study; of Brahmanas, absence of vows; of the Earth, the Vahlikas; of man, untruth; of the chaste woman, curiosity; of women, exile from home. The scum of gold is silver; of silver, tin; of tin, lead; and of lead, useless dross. One cannot conquer sleep by lying down; women by desire; fire by fuel; and wine by drinking. His life is, indeed, crowned with success who hath won his friends by gifts, his foes in battle, and wife by food and drink; they who have thousands live; they, ...

— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... delays were caused by the breaking of wheels and axles. The heat and aridity of the plains and mountains speedily made many of the cart-wheels rickety and unable to sustain their burdens without frequent repairs. Some shod the axles of their carts with old leather, others with tin from the plates and kettles of their mess outfit; and for grease they used their allowance of bacon, and even their soap, of which they had but little. On reaching Wood River the cattle stampeded, and thirty head were lost, the remainder being only sufficient to allow one yoke to each ...

— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

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