tin-pot

[ tin-pot ]

/ ˈtɪnˈpɒt /

inferior; paltry; shoddy.

Origin of tin-pot

First recorded in 1765–75; from the believed inferior quality of a tin pot

I took an axe from the wagon—also a tin-pot, and a piece of dry beef that still remained to us.

The Desert Home |Mayne Reid
I was about to lead him aft, but his eye caught sight of a scuttlebutt, and the tin-pot on its head.

Afloat And Ashore |James Fenimore Cooper
Presently Colenso came into view—a hundred tin-pot houses under the high hills to the northward.

London to Ladysmith via Pretoria |Winston Spencer Churchill
It isn't a lively look-out to live in a tin-pot house here, and come home to find the mater fretting over her lost splendours.

The Quaint Companions |Leonard Merrick

Mary was preparing the dried meat, which she intended to boil along with the locust-beans in our tin-pot.

The Desert Home |Mayne Reid