second-rate
Americanadjective
-
of lesser or minor quality, importance, or the like.
a second-rate poet.
-
inferior; mediocre.
a second-rate performance.
- Synonyms:
- commonplace, pedestrian, undistinguished, inadequate, middling
adjective
-
not of the highest quality; mediocre
-
second in importance, etc
Other Word Forms
- second-rateness noun
- second-rater noun
- secondrater noun
Etymology
Origin of second-rate
First recorded in 1660–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Now small investors may finally be invited into private deals, but probably only second-rate ones for confiscatory fees.
Outwardly unassuming and privately acerbic, Martin Gilmour teaches at a second-rate English university that, in his words, “tended to attract the stupid rich.”
They also require the world to shower prizes on them for their bumbling, second-rate work.
From Salon
With Netflix’s algorithmic approach and its need to keep its shelves overflowing with mostly second-rate material, might not the result veer toward AI slop?
China’s most famous AI export has already shown that it can close that gap with second-rate hardware.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
