tin can

tin can (plural tin cans)

1. a container, usually cylindrical, made out of sheet metal coated with tin
2. (as a misnomer) a container, usually cylindrical, made out of sheet metal coated with aluminum
3. (nautical) a destroyer
   • 2000, Donald F. Myers, Your War, My War: A Marine in Vietnam, →ISBN, page 305:

     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;

4. An inexpensive car.
   • 2010, Heather Vogel Frederick, The Mother-Daughter Book Club, →ISBN, page 21:

     They're driving the same tin can they've had since Emma and I were in kindergarten.

   • 2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 134:

     We got a shockingly low price for it and bought a small tin-can run-around.

5. A motor home or trailer
   • 2007, Errol L. Sweetser, Quest for the Ridge: A Childhood Adventure, →ISBN, page 34:

     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.

• tin (British, Australian & Canadian), can (US)

• can

• tinfoil
• aluminum can

• Cantin, cannit, incant, tannic