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
Integrated education - schooling Catholic and Protestant children together - has long been the poor relation of Northern Ireland’s education system.
From BBC • Jun. 20, 2024
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
It said: “The evidence clearly suggests that the UK saw itself as the poor relation to the US, and was distinctly uncomfortable at the prospect of complaining to its host.”
From The Guardian • Jun. 28, 2018
A poor relation whom she, Patty, had befriended, no more.
From Concerning Sally by Hopkins, William John
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.