Word.ws English Dictionary

tinker, tailor

tinker, tailor noun: a method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by children. The child points to each item in turn (or alternately), while saying the rhyme "tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief", moving to the next item after naming each profession. The item pointed at on the word 'thief' is the one chosen.

Noun

tinker, tailor (uncountable)

  1. A method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by children. The child points to each item in turn (or alternately), while saying the rhyme "tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief", moving to the next item after naming each profession. The item pointed at on the word 'thief' is the one chosen.

Questions about tinker, tailor

What does tinker, tailor mean?
Tinker, tailor means a method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by children. The child points to each item in turn (or alternately), while saying the rhyme "tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief", moving to the next item after naming each profession. The item pointed at on the word 'thief' is the one chosen.
What part of speech is tinker, tailor?
Tinker, tailor is a noun.

Words near tinker, tailor in the dictionary

  1. tinker's dam
  2. tinker's damn
  3. tinker's darn
  4. tinker's fart
  5. tinker's toot
  6. tinker, tailor
  7. Tinkerbell
  8. tinkerbell fairyflies
  9. tinkerbell fairyfly
  10. Tinkerbell line
  11. Tinkerbell lines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tinker, tailor (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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