step-child

plural step-children

1. alternativeAlternative form of stepchild.

   I just think in this climate and this environment, you should keep the status quo. You’re sending a message to drafted players: you are major league baseball’s step-child.

   2020 March 29, Brendan Bianowicz, quoting Scott Boras, “Scott Boras rips shortened MLB draft: ‘Sends wrong message’”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2020

   2 more examples

   Bridal Week is usually regulated to red-headed step-child status in the fashion world—and rightfully so. All those shiny white dresses start to look hypnotically similar, and what the designers lack in creativity, they make up for in rhinestones.

   2007 April 24, Aja Mangum, “The Haute Bride”, in New York, New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 May 2007

   It is possible to know that genes are not the essence of what it is to be part of a family—that step-children can be loved unconditionally, that people may bear scant, if any, resemblance to their genetic forebears—and still struggle to adjust to what can feel like a loss of parental identity.

   2023 July 17, “Some women need eggs from others, or from their younger selves”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2023