tin-pot

WOTD – 13 March 2008

English[edit]

Origin 1700s, from the low esteem for a tinker’s wares.

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

tin-pot (not comparable)

(informal) Inferior; shoddy.
- 1899, Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, section 1
  
  It was a great comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend, the battered, twisted, ruined, tin–pot steamboat.
(informal) Of a country, regime etc., autocratic, especially amusingly so.

inferior, shoddy