TIN PLATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tin plate

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/tɪn pleɪt/ Listen

noun

Tin n.

(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.

Money. (Cant)

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.)

Tin plate, thin sheet iron coated with tin.

Tin pyrites. See Stannite.

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Etymology of 'Tin plate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tin plate" Quotes from Famous Books

... no!" replied the Justice, "but for love the gentleman may have dinner and supper and a place to rest as long as he wants it." He had a tin plate, as clear and bright as a mirror, a knife, a fork and a spoon, just as bright as the plate, laid upon the table, and pressed his guest to sit down. The latter fell upon the well-cooked ham, the big beans, the eggs and sausages, which constituted ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... put on my great-coat. I picked up my tin plate and mug and went out into the darkness once again. I was afraid I might have to stand in a long queue outside the cook-house, but fortunately only a few men were waiting before me. I joined them and we marked time at the double in a ...

— Combed Out • Fritz August Voigt

... sailors of the Duyfken, a Dutch vessel which entered the Gulf of Carpentaria in A.D. 1606, were attacked by the natives. In the fray some of the whites were killed. No doubt these unlucky adventurers were the first Europeans buried in Australia. *5* Dirk Hartog left a tin plate, bearing his name, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. *6* The story of Tasman's love for Maria, the daughter of Governor Van Diemen, was generally accepted at the time Kendall wrote; but it has since been disproved. Maria was the wife ...

— The Poems of Henry Kendall • Henry Kendall

... come out and call all de li'l niggers in de house to play with her chillen. When us eat us have de tin plate and cup. Dey give us plenty milk and butter and 'taters and sich. Us all set on de floor and make 'way with ...

— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. - Texas Narratives, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... the camp bedstead and the small deal table standing against the opposite wall. Besides this furniture, there was one chair, an empty wooden box turned up on end, with a tin basin on it—that was his washstand—a little shelf fixed on the wall, and on the little shelf a tin mug, a tin plate, a pot of salt, a small loaf of black bread, and a Bible. The walls were painted brown, and the window, fitted with ground glass, was high up near the ceiling; it was barred on the outside, and could only be opened a few inches at the top. On the door ...

— The Benefactress • Elizabeth Beauchamp

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