Definitions
Etymologies
- A popular etymology is that tinkers used a small piece of dough or clay, a dam, to stop the flow of solder until it solidified. The dam was single-use, and was thrown away afterwards as useless. (Wiktionary)
- Probably from the reputation of tinkers for cursing. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tinker's damn’.
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possessive phrases
made due to compulsion to not leave the comments on this list hanging. Also the typo.
bum's rush, king's ransom, mind's eye, god's country, christ's sake, winner's circle, Lorenzo's oil, St. Elmo's Fire, dog's breakfast, rat's ass, tinker's damn, cat's meow and 67 more...
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X's Y, where X is not somebody's name
Somebody must already have a list like this. But I'm bored, so I'm going to start my own.
cat's pajamas, bee's knees, mare's nest, lion's share, snowball's chance..., widow's peak, busman's holiday, devil's advocate, greengrocer's apo..., baker's dozen, curate's egg, pope's nose and 224 more...
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skipvia's Words
syzygy, egg, lossy, catharsis, impuissance, truckle, obsequious, sequoia, sonot khazoot, alizarin, sepulchre, klister and 434 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tinker's damn.
frindley Tinker's cuss in my neck of the woods too. That's if you hear it at all… Oct 20, 2008
bilby I like tinkers to cuss. The only time I've ever heard this expression it was a cuss, so that stayed with me. Cuss/curse is rarely used to describe foul language in Australia. Oct 20, 2008
trivet I've always heard/said tinker's toot.
ps - Why does heard look so freakish in print? Oct 19, 2008
reesetee Oh, but sionnach, it sounds great! Go on, try it on someone today. "You know, I really want to care about Fred's business report, but today I just don't give a haymaker's damn." Nov 1, 2007
sionnach skipvia: I must apologize - this seems like a false recovered memory on my part. I wasn't deliberately trying to mislead: I think I might have had the word thrawneen in mind. There is an Irish expression - "I don't give a thrawneen about it", which would be the same as "I don't give a tinker's damn", where thrawneen means "a straw, a rush, something of little value".
But haymaker means something else entirely. And, sad to say, haymaker's damn appears to have been just a figment of my crossed brain-circuits. Nov 1, 2007
skipvia Once again you have me at a disadvantage, si. I've never heard this term and a quick Google search turned up nothing.
Or am I missing one of your elaborate jokes? :) Nov 1, 2007
sionnach Is this the same as a haymaker's damn? Nov 1, 2007
skipvia According to this article on The Phrase Finder, the etymologically correct spelling of tinker's dam, having evolved from the phrase tinker's curse. Nov 1, 2007