Word.ws English Dictionary

put the tin lid on it

put the tin lid on it verb: to be one final unwelcome event that rounds off a series of problems or misfortunes.

Verb

put the tin lid on it (third-person singular simple present puts the tin lid on it, present participle putting the tin lid on it, simple past and past participle put the tin lid on it)

  1. To be one final unwelcome event that rounds off a series of problems or misfortunes.
    • I got a flat tyre, then the heater broke, and then, just to put the tin lid on it, I ran out of petrol.

Forms of put the tin lid on it

third-person singular presentputs the tin lid on it
present participleputting the tin lid on it
past participleput the tin lid on it
pastput the tin lid on it

Questions about put the tin lid on it

What does put the tin lid on it mean?
Put the tin lid on it means to be one final unwelcome event that rounds off a series of problems or misfortunes.
What part of speech is put the tin lid on it?
Put the tin lid on it is a verb.
What is the past tense of put the tin lid on it?
The past tense of put the tin lid on it is put the tin lid on it.

Words near put the tin lid on it in the dictionary

  1. put the screws
  2. put the shits up someone
  3. put the shoe on the other foot
  4. put the squeeze on
  5. put the stunners on
  6. put the tin lid on it
  7. put the toothpaste back in the tube
  8. put the wind up
  9. put the wood in the hole
  10. put the world to rights
  11. put through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put the tin lid on it (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.

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Cite this entry: “put the tin lid on it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_the_tin_lid_on_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.