poor relation
Britishnoun
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.
Bayswater was long considered the poor relation of its ultradesirable London neighbors Notting Hill and Marylebone, but new development is driving up home prices in the area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
Geraldine Hanna told the NI Affairs Committee justice was a poor relation in funding terms.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2023
Diagnostics has been the poor relation to drugs and vaccines for years, as governments are now realising to their cost.
From The Guardian ● May 1, 2020
His poor relation had always been an anomaly in the ranks of SPI employees, old among the young, emaciated among the luscious, a lonely figure, permanently out of step, everyone’s crazy grandpa.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 22, 2019
"You keep forgetting I'm the family pauper, the poor relation, whereas Venetia has all the money there is, more or less."
From Joan Thursday by Vance, Louis Joseph
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.
