mess tin

noun

A portable container for cooking or serving food, originally for military use, and generally of a rounded rectangular form.

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Meanings

nounmess tin (plural mess tins)

plural mess tins

  1. A portable container for cooking or serving food, originally for military use, and generally of a rounded rectangular form.
    1 more example

    […] it was his army mess tin, he had carried it with him in all his travels, he certainly was attached to it. Alberto didn't stop roaming about the Camp until he identified the thief, who was much stronger than we were and brazenly carried around the beautiful and rare Italian mess tin. My friend hit on a plan: to offer Elias three bread rations, in installments, provided he would agree to recover the mess tin, by fair means or foul, from the hands of the thief, who was a Pole like himself.

    2017, Primo Levi, Moments of Reprieve: Essays, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 126

Translations

Italian gavetta, schiscetta
  • gavettaportable container
  • schiscettaportable container
Cite this entry
APA

mess tin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mess%20tin

MLA

“mess tin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mess%20tin. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mess tin,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mess%20tin.

Source: mess tin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.