tin lizzie

plural tin lizzies

1. Alternative letter-case form of tin Lizzie.

plural tin Lizzies · alternative Tin Lizzie · alternative tin lizzie

1. datedinformalThe Ford Motor Company's Model T automobile.

   The Model T became a legend. . . . The Tin Lizzie rattled and banged across the country.

   1947 April 21, “Michigan: Detroit Dynast”, in Time

   1 more example

   Fate, in the guise of a rural free delivery carrier and a Ford, passed by the front gate. . . . "I don' see why he don't carry a whip," mused Jeb Case. "A-gidappin' to that there tin lizzie," he muttered disgustedly, "jes' like it was as good as a hoss."

   1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 6, in The Oakdale Affair

2. broadlyinformalA small, unpretentious, vintage automobile, especially one that is in run-down condition.

   "The car he was driving was a shit-box, a real Tin Lizzie, older than Christ."

   2003, Thomas Rendell Curran, Undertow, →ISBN, page 160

   1 more example

   "It's a ottomobile. . . . It's a second-hand tin Lizzie," said Walter. "D'you know what that means? It means a flivver."

   1921, Booth Tarkington, chapter 6, in Alice Adams

   Synonyms: flivver, jalopy, banger, beater, bucket of bolts, bucket of rust, clunker, crate

plural Tin Lizzies

1. Alternative letter-case form of tin Lizzie.
2. A piece of waste ground near the railway, in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1960s, where local children often played, and where Mary Bell killed Brian Howe.