Word.ws English Dictionary

tin-horn

tin-horn is the alternative spelling of tinhorn.

Meaning of tinhorn

Noun

tinhorn (plural tinhorns)

  1. (US) A contemptible or pretentious person, especially one who gambles for low stakes.
    • “[…] 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. […]”1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

See all 2 meanings of tinhorn

Forms of tin-horn

pluraltin-horns

Questions about tin-horn

What is tin-horn the alternative spelling of?
Tin-horn is the alternative spelling of tinhorn.

Words near tin-horn in the dictionary

  1. tin-eared
  2. tin-foil
  3. tin-foil hat
  4. tin-foil hats
  5. tin-glazed
  6. tin-horn
  7. tin-horns
  8. tin-opener
  9. tin-openers
  10. tin-plate
  11. tin-plated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tin-horn (page history and authors); tinhorn (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: “tin-horn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tin-horn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.