tinpot
/ˈtɪnpɒt
/adjective [attributive] British informal
(Especially of a country or its leader) having or showing poor leadership or organization: a tinpot dictator...
- Within months, the carefully groomed leader became a tinpot dictator, setting a trend that would endure in all the fractured states of West Africa.
- Why on earth is the USA supposed to be responsible for the unending disasters of every African tinpot country?
- The rather pathetic attempts to compare this tinpot dictator of a ruined little country to Hitler, master of an imperial superpower, are a sign of desperation within the pro-war lobby.
Synonyms
inferior, second-rate, third-rate, gimcrack
informal Mickey Mouse, poxy
British informal twopenny-halfpenny, pathetic
North American informal two-bit, dime-store
North American vulgar slang chickenshit