do exactly what it says on the tin
do exactly what it says on the tin verb: to do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed.
Verb
do exactly what it says on the tin (third-person singular simple present does exactly what it says on the tin, present participle doing exactly what it says on the tin, simple past did exactly what it said on the tin, past participle done exactly what it said on the tin)
- To do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed.
- So if you've got wood to stain and you want it to dry quickly, use Ronseal Quick-Drying Woodstain. It does exactly what it says on the tin.1994, Liz Whiston et al., Ronseal TV advertisement
- [The Erotic Art Museum] does exactly what it says on the tin: presents erotic art […]2004, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Germany, Lonely Planet,, →ISBN, page 689
- Synonyms:
- what you see is what you get
Synonyms of do exactly what it says on the tin
Forms of do exactly what it says on the tin
| third-person singular present | does exactly what it says on the tin |
|---|---|
| present participle | doing exactly what it says on the tin |
| past | did exactly what it said on the tin |
| past participle | done exactly what it said on the tin |
| alternative form | do what it says on the tin |
Origin of do exactly what it says on the tin
From the sense of tin meaning a can, originally the slogan of an HHCL advertising campaign of UK television commercials for Ronseal Quick-Drying Woodseal.
Words formed from do exactly what it says on the tin
- like it says on the tin
Questions about do exactly what it says on the tin
- What does do exactly what it says on the tin mean?
- Do exactly what it says on the tin means to do what is described or what one would expect, with no further explanation needed.
- What part of speech is do exactly what it says on the tin?
- Do exactly what it says on the tin is a verb.
- What is the past tense of do exactly what it says on the tin?
- The past tense of do exactly what it says on the tin is did exactly what it said on the tin.
Words near do exactly what it says on the tin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: do exactly what it says on the tin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “do exactly what it says on the tin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/do_exactly_what_it_says_on_the_tin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.