tinker, tailor
Repair clothes professionally
Tinker, tailor refers to a traditional English counting rhyme used to predict one's future spouse or fate: "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief." Children count off items—cherry pits, buttons, daisy petals—to land on a destiny.
The phrase gained wider recognition through John le Carré's spy novel *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*.
- soldierArmed forces member
- mendRestore after damage
- handiworkHandmade work product
- cobblerShoe repair artisan
- repairRestore to working order
double agent · nursery rhyme · counting rhyme · children's game · skillfulness · smithy · craft · suit · stitch · espionage · sew · Cold War · British intelligence · agent · secret · artisanal · patch · forge
tinker, tailorsailor
Seafaring crew member
thief · merchant prince · lawyer · aristocrat · nobleman
tinker, tailorfactory worker
Manufacturing floor employee
assembly line worker · machine operator · mill hand · salaried worker · company man
tinker, tailorspy
Covert information gatherer
secret agent · intelligence officer · diplomat · statesman · technocrat
tinker, tailor, tinkered, tinkering, tinkers, tinkerer, tinkerers, tailored, tailoring