The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tin \Tin\, n. [As. tin; akin to D. tin, G. zinn, OHG. zin, Icel. & Dan. tin, Sw. tenn; of unknown origin.]
(Chem.) An elementary substance found as an oxide in the mineral cassiterite, and reduced as a soft silvery-white crystalline metal, with a tinge of yellowish-blue, and a high luster. It is malleable at ordinary temperatures, but brittle when heated. It is softer than gold and can be beaten out into very thin strips called tinfoil. It is ductile at 2120, when it can be drawn out into wire which is not very tenacious; it melts at 4420, and at a higher temperature burns with a brilliant white light. Air and moisture act on tin very slightly. The peculiar properties of tin, especially its malleability, its brilliancy and the slowness with which it rusts make it very serviceable. With other metals it forms valuable alloys, as bronze, gun metal, bell metal, pewter and solder. It is not easily oxidized in the air, and is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting, in the form of tin foil with mercury to form the reflective surface of mirrors, and in solder, bronze, speculum metal, and other alloys. Its compounds are designated as stannous, or stannic. Symbol Sn (Stannum). Atomic weight 117.4.
Thin plates of iron covered with tin; tin plate.
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Money. [Cant]
--Beaconsfield.Block tin (Metal.), commercial tin, cast into blocks, and partially refined, but containing small quantities of various impurities, as copper, lead, iron, arsenic, etc.; solid tin as distinguished from tin plate; -- called also bar tin.
Butter of tin. (Old Chem.) See Fuming liquor of Libavius, under Fuming.
Grain tin. (Metal.) See under Grain.
Salt of tin (Dyeing), stannous chloride, especially so called when used as a mordant.
Stream tin. See under Stream.
Tin cry (Chem.), the peculiar creaking noise made when a bar of tin is bent. It is produced by the grating of the crystal granules on each other.
Tin foil, tin reduced to a thin leaf.
Tin frame (Mining), a kind of buddle used in washing tin ore.
Tin liquor, Tin mordant (Dyeing), stannous chloride, used as a mordant in dyeing and calico printing.
Tin penny, a customary duty in England, formerly paid to tithingmen for liberty to dig in tin mines. [Obs.]
--Bailey.Tin plate, thin sheet iron coated with tin.
Tin pyrites. See Stannite.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of tinfoil English)
WordNet
n. foil made of tin or an alloy of tin and lead [syn: tinfoil]
foil made of aluminum [syn: aluminum foil, aluminium foil]
Wikipedia
Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Actual tin foil was superseded by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil after World War II. Despite this, aluminium foil is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions.
Tin foil is a thin metal foil.
Tin foil or tinfoil may also refer to:
- a common misnomer for aluminum foil
- Barbonymus, a genus of fish which are sometimes called tinfoils
- Tinfoil, a novel by Mildred Cram
- Tinfoil, original title of Faithless (1932 film), an adaptation of Cram's novel
- "Tinfoil", an instrumental track on Living Things (Linkin Park album)
Usage examples of "tin foil".
They advertised that anybody intending to slip through the Iron Curtain should provide himself with Bouffon's Anti-Radar Tin Foil Strips, available in one-kilogram cartons at all corner shops.
Attaching a diaphragm across the narrow end of a horn concentrates the sound energy and allows the needle to cut the wiggly line into a piece of waxor, as in the original, a piece of tin foil wound round a drum (Please look up Edison, Phonograph on the web).
All week Francie walked home slowly from school with her eyes in the gutter looking for tin foil from cigarette packages or chewing gum wrappers.
The Juicyfruit wrapper came away, revealing the inner shell of tin foil.
Foaly plucked the tin foil hat from his head, crunching it into a ball.
He tore off a piece of the tin foil and pressed it into the hole in the toilet paper tube, making a crude bowl.
The thought of ramming a needle through there was like chewing tin foil.
The force of it crumpled the hood like tin foil and drove the shocks down so that the frame smushed up against the tires.
Smugglers and romantic young men, meditatively dripping tin foil as they flew through the Russian night, made Russian radar useless.
I surveyed the tin foil trays of chicken legs and guacamole marinating in the window, the plastic chairs and tables, the hanging ponchos and synthetic cacti, and suddenly my hunger vanished.
The metal crumpled like tin foil, and from inside came an awful scream and crackle of shorted electricity.
They were carrying dispensers that would, on his command, release a cloud of chaff-the radar reflective tin foil which would serve to confuse the enemy's SAM and AA radar beams.
In the darkness, while up front the newsreel started up with a din, Harry peeled paper and tin foil from a roll of raspberry drops, thrust his thumbnail between the first and the second drop, and offered Tulla the roll.