tin god

plural tin gods

1. idiomaticA false god, particularly a petty tyrant, a person who abuses or exceeds their authority over others in petty ways.

   Wherefore the Little Tin Gods harried their little tin souls, / Seeing he came not from Chatham, jingled no spurs at his heels; […]

   1886, Rudyard Kipling, “[Departmental Ditties] Public Waste”, in Departmental Ditties […], New York, N.Y.: M. F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, published 1899, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   In Prussia alone there are 492 Landräte—a sort of district commissioner—all Government officials or directly in touch with the central government, and all little tin gods in their own district.

   1909, Frederic William Wile et al., Our German Cousins, page 89

   [Frank Lloyd Wright] was regarded by members of the [Taliesin] fellowship as somewhat of an idol, a tin god, or a master, who could do no wrong.

   1943 March 3, Redacted Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Draft Board member, FBI report

   ELIAS: Well, Doctor, I've been thinking about what sort of work I could assign you to. MCCOY: What do you mean, what sort of work? I'm a doctor. ELIAS: Not any more, of course. We don't need you. Not as a doctor. MCCOY: Oh, no? Would you like to see just how fast I can put you in a hospital? ELIAS: I am the leader of this colony. I'll assign you to whatever work I think is suitable. MCCOY: Just a minute. You'd better make me a mechanic. Then I can treat little tin gods like you. (He punches Elias.)

   1967, “This Side of Paradise”, in Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 25 (television production), Paramount Pictures