gentleman's C

plural gentleman's Cs · plural gentlemen's Cs

1. An academic pass grade unfairly awarded to an otherwise failing student because of social advantages, such as a privileged family background.

   I always got the same grade: a C. It was not a "gentleman's C," it was just a C.

   2007, Thomas F. Bayard, No Cats in Vietnam: The Memoir of a Straightleg Engineer, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 28

   1 more example

   As a scholar, he was content to squeak by, passing his courses with a "gentleman's C" and an occasional B.

   1992, Russell Freedman, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 20