Word.ws English Dictionary

tomato can

tomato can noun: an inferior fighter in the sport of boxing. The insinuation is that an up-and-coming fighter takes on a "tomato can" to burnish his reputation and record.

Noun

tomato can (plural tomato cans)

  1. (derogatory, slang) An inferior fighter in the sport of boxing. The insinuation is that an up-and-coming fighter takes on a "tomato can" to burnish his reputation and record.
  2. (slang) By extension, an opponent who presents little challenge.
  3. (slang) A boxer who takes a dive, or loses a fight on purpose.

Forms of tomato can

pluraltomato cans

Origin of tomato can

Presumably because of tendency to bleed when battered, tomato juice leaking from a can being a metaphor for bleeding.

Questions about tomato can

What does tomato can mean?
Tomato can means an inferior fighter in the sport of boxing. The insinuation is that an up-and-coming fighter takes on a "tomato can" to burnish his reputation and record.
What part of speech is tomato can?
Tomato can is a noun.
What is the plural of tomato can?
The plural of tomato can is tomato cans.

Words near tomato can in the dictionary

  1. tomatini
  2. tomatinis
  3. Tomatis method
  4. tomato
  5. tomato cage
  6. tomato can
  7. tomato cans
  8. tomato clownfish
  9. tomato clownfishes
  10. tomato concentrate
  11. tomato concentrates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tomato can (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tomato can.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tomato can.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tomato_can. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.