tin god

[ tin god ]

noun

1. a self-important, dictatorial person in a position of authority, such as an employer, military officer, critic, or teacher.
2. a person who believes they are infallible and tries to impose judgments, beliefs, standards of behavior, etc., on subordinates.

tin god

noun

1. a self-important dictatorial person
2. a person erroneously regarded as holy or venerable

Word History and Origins

Origin of tin god¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Idioms and Phrases

A self-important, dictatorial, petty person who imposes ideas, beliefs, and standards on subordinates. For example, The officials in these small towns often act like tin gods . The tin in this expression alludes to the fact that tin is a base metal with relatively little value. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

“The law is what he lives by. He’ll do his best to prevent someone from beating up somebody else, then he’ll turn around and try to stop no less than the Federal Government—just like you, child. You turned and tackled no less than your own tin god—but remember this, he’ll always do it by the letter and by the spirit of the law. That’s the way he lives.”

From Literature

I’m told he’s the little tin god of Tintown.

From Project Gutenberg

You've been posing as a little tin god before the people of this State, and all the while you've been knifing and slugging and black-jacking private capital and private business wherever and whenever they have happened to get in your way.

From Project Gutenberg

If the three schools should be tied, and it should all hang on the Pentathlon, why, the fellow who won that would be a regular tin god, you know; he'd go down in the history of the school like George Washington in the history of the country.

From Project Gutenberg

But just wait till the bloom is off the honeymoon, and she finds herself all alone with her little tin god among the savages!

From Project Gutenberg