sardine box—(UK hist.) used of the City & South London Railway opened in 1890, so called because of the packed conditions at rush hour:
- The passengers in the “sardine box railway” had to sit facing each other on long benches in light too dim to read a newspaper.
sardine tin—(sl., pejor.)
1. a mini-car:
- Leave that smelly little sardine tin alone. The exhaust smells a little, but that’s nothing.
2. an aircraft:
- Just back from our Tenerife family holiday and will never forget the sardine tin we flew in.
3. (Nautical) a clumsy steamer:
- No one was allowed on deck … and in the never ending rolling sardine tin, we were all tottering about uphill and downhill.
4. (Nautical) a submarine:
- U-boat submariners were true dedicated sailors and so is anyone who gets inside a sardine tin under water.