Meanings
plural tintypes
- An early, remarkably durable form of photograph (technically a photographic negative), printed on a tin plate, then varnished.
They'll show you tintypes of the kids more often than not, hell, they love em chavalitos.
2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Against the Day”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 8852 more examples
She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.
1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLCThere were photographs everywhere: photographs framed and unframed; photographs large and photographs small, the fresh and the faded; tintypes, kodaks, “full lengths,” “cabinets,” groups—every type of photograph; […]
1913, Booth Tarkington, The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 70
Origin
Cite this entry
tintype. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tintype
“tintype.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tintype. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tintype,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tintype.
Source: tintype on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.