tin can

Noun

tin can (plural tin cans)

1. A container, usually cylindrical, made out of sheet metal coated with tin, or (by extension) aluminum.

   Synonyms:

   tin, can

2. (slang) A destroyer.
   • ‘What was it you said you did aboard that tin-can you came from?’1960, J. E. Macdonnell, Don't Gimme the Ships, Melbourne: Horwitz Publications, page 96
   • As the tin can sailors started telling us what they thought of AKA sailors, which they said were inferior seamen habing to serve aboard an auxiliary vessel instead of a ship of the line;2000, Donald F. Myers, Your War, My War: A Marine in Vietnam, →ISBN, page 305
3. (slang) An inexpensive car.
   • They're driving the same tin can they've had since Emma and I were in kindergarten.2010, Heather Vogel Frederick, The Mother-Daughter Book Club, →ISBN, page 21
   • We got a shockingly low price for it and bought a small tin-can run-around.2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 134
4. (slang) A motor home or trailer.
   • I was too late as bearing down the ribbon of no return was a huge tin can piloted by two women with hair blowing over the side windows.2007, Errol L. Sweetser, Quest for the Ridge: A Childhood Adventure, →ISBN, page 34
5. (slang) A metal spaceship or space station.
   • For here am I sitting in a tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there's nothing I can do1969, David Bowie, “Space Oddity”
6. (derogatory, informal, sometimes) A nickname for a robot or artificial intelligence.
   • Do as you’re told, tin can!