third-rate

alternative third rate

1. UKhistoricalnot comparablegovernmentOf a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having 64–80 guns across two gun decks, a complement of 500–650, and weighing approximately 1,750 tons burthen.
2. idiomaticnot comparablePoor, shoddy; less than second-rate.

   I consider it to now be a third-rate service run without any excuses being offered.

   2022 December 14, Barry Doe, “NRT review meets Christmas deadlines”, in RAIL, number 972, page 40

   1 more example

   He was smoking a cherry-wood pipe, and looked on the whole as if he had borrowed his outfit from the wardrobe of a third-rate dramatic company.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 96

   Synonyms: bad, lousy, third-class, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf

plural third-rates · alternative third rate

1. UKhistoricalgovernmentA third-rate ship of the line.