tinhorn

[tin-hawrn] /ˈtɪnˌhɔrn/
noun
1.
someone, especially a gambler, who pretends to be important but actually has little money, influence, or skill.
adjective
2.
cheap and insignificant; small-time:
a tinhorn racket.
Origin
1880-85, Americanism; tin + horn
British Dictionary definitions for tinhorn

tinhorn

/ˈtɪnˌhɔːn/
noun
1.
a cheap pretentious person, esp a gambler with extravagant claims
adjective
2.
cheap and showy
Word Origin and History for tinhorn
adj.

"petty but flashy," 1857, from tin + horn (n.); originally of low-class gamblers, from the tin cans they used for shaking dice.

Slang definitions & phrases for tinhorn

tinhorn

n,n phr

A petty but flashy gambler, or any person with those characteristics: denunciations of punks, tin-horns, and gyps

[entry form 1857+, variant 1885+; fr the horn-shaped metal can used by chuck-a-luck operators for shaking the dice; the notion of inferiority comes fr the presumed superiority of other, more sophisticated kinds of gambling, and fr the generalized inferiority of tin to other metals]